


Benevolent

by Foarrin



Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: Angst, Comfort, Execution, F/M, Family Drama, Family Secrets, Trials, Twins, dragon - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-22
Updated: 2018-07-22
Packaged: 2019-06-14 15:09:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 17
Words: 28,513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15391467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Foarrin/pseuds/Foarrin
Summary: Ben's coronation allows for the revelation of a sixteen-year-old secret: Mal and Ben are twins. But the explanation behind it is one that will turn not only Mal's world upside down but even that of all of Auradon. Family fic.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Descendants or its prequel Isle of the Lost. The first bit is transcribed directly from the movie to lead into the story.

Mal's stomach was in knots. Everyone at the coronation was frozen, completely unmoving. Not even breathing. It was as if time had stopped for everyone except her, her three friends, and her mother, who stood in front of them, cackling. Mal watched as Maleficent walked from Beast to Fairy Godmother and snatched the wand from the headmistress's hand.

Maleficent turned on Mal. "Let's start by getting rid of this." She pointed the wand at her, and Ben's ring flew off her finger and onto the wand. "Perfect fit!"

Mal sniffled and hung her head, feeling defeated. Just after choosing good, her mother was still going to take over and put an end to the new life she had found. The life she had chosen. She swallowed and looked back up as her mother approached Ben, and her heart clenched tightly in fear. What if she hurt Ben? Surely, she wouldn't. But...no, this was her mother. Her mother thrived on making others miserable, especially Mal.

Maleficent touched Ben's face, turning his face toward hers haphazardly. And then Maleficent was the one who froze, her eyes fixed on Ben's own. In an instant, she stepped back like she had been shocked, and her eyes roamed his face and down over his body. She turned to Mal, then to the frozen Beast. She inhaled deeply and slammed the end of her scepter against the floor. Beast, Belle, Ben, and Fairy Godmother all unfroze.

Ben surged forward as the roar he had been unable to finish was torn from his lips. Then he stopped and glared at Maleficent.

Maleficent pointed the wand between Beast and Belle. "You two." She settled the wand on Beast. "You." She nodded to Ben. "You thought I wouldn't recognize him?"

Mal frowned, looking at Ben. He seemed to be just as confused as she was. Why had her mother suddenly unfrozen them and stopped her master plan to question Beast?

Belle glanced at Beast, and Beast shook his head. "What do you mean, Maleficent?"

"What do I mean?" Maleficent asked. She laughed one of her usual cackles before quickly sobering. "You mean to tell me you didn't think I would recognize my own son?"

Somewhere to Mal's left, Jay snorted. "What?" he muttered. But no one looked at him. Belle's eyes were suddenly very large, her gaze flitting between her husband and Maleficent. Belle shook her head to Beast, a warning.

"Dad, what's she talking about?" Ben asked.

Maleficent's mouth suddenly curled into a grin. "Oh, Beast, you don't mean to tell me you've been keeping it a secret, have you?" She smiled at Ben. "Your mommy and daddy have been very bad people. Almost as bad as me, though that would be a compliment." She shot Beast a wicked grin before looking back at Ben. "You're adopted, aren't you? Well, actually, I guess they would've lied about that too."

Ben looked to his parents. "No, seriously, what's she talking about?"

Belle was gripping Beast's arm so tightly that her knuckles were white. She looked up at Beast and shook her head. There were tears in her eyes.

Beast looked from Ben to Maleficent and glared at her. "We weren't going to tell him."

"Tell me what?" Ben asked.

Mal felt Evie's hand slip into hers, and she gripped her hand tightly, using the contact as an anchor as she listened. Something big was happening, and it didn't seem like her mother was lying. But...none of it made sense.

Beast sighed heavily. "You're adopted, Ben. Well...sort of. You're my biological son."

Ben shook his head. "But...what? Mom, what does he mean?"

Belle swallowed. "I couldn't...I couldn't have children, Ben. I...I couldn't carry a baby to term. We lost multiple pregnancies."

"But, but...then who's-"

"I already told you." Maleficent rolled her eyes and looked over her shoulder at Mal. "Not very bright, is he?" Then she paused and turned a bit more to Mal. "Oh, this just gets better. You two liked each other." She laughed and had to use her scepter to keep standing upright as she doubled over. "Oh, this is priceless!"

Mal frowned. "I love Ben, Mother. What's your point?"

Maleficent frowned and narrowed her eyes. "You can't be in love with him. He's your brother."

Mal shook her head. "You're lying. You were only ever pregnant once."

"Well, how would you know?" Maleficent countered. She sighed. "But, yes, you're right, I was only pregnant once. But, you know, Mal, I would think that even the dumbest of people could figure out that meant you two are twins."

"Enough!" Beast shouted. "Maleficent, you will leave."

"Actually, I won't." Maleficent pointed the wand's tip back at Beast. "You're going to tell them what really happened sixteen years ago. I'm rather curious myself how you came by him when he's supposed to be dead. Anyways, yes, tell them. Then, I'll kill you. Or imprison you. Depends on how I'm feeling after your side of the tale."

Beast shook his head.

"Dad," Ben said softly. "Explain. Please. Is she telling the truth?"

Beast looked at Belle and then to Fairy Godmother. The headmistress just nodded. Beast sighed. "Sixteen years ago, I went to the Isle of the Lost on an errand to offer the villains a deal. They could do community service to pay for their debts to society. But they were prideful and obviously didn't take kindly to the idea of working in menial jobs. Maleficent agreed to a meeting with me over drinks, which was all a big joke."

Maleficent rolled her eyes. "You're the joke," she grumbled.

Beast shot a glare at her before addressing Ben again. "We...well, Ben, we...I made some poor choices, and one thing led to another. We...uh-"

"We had sex," Maleficent put in, which earned her another glare from Beast. "What? You weren't going to say it."

Beast sighed. "Anyways, yes, we slept together. And I left. For that reason, I haven't made a trip back to the Isle in the past sixteen years."

"That's not the only reason," Maleficent corrected him.

"Fine, no, it's not the only reason. News from the Isle often gets to Auradon by way of the garbage barges that travel between the two. One of the men running one of these let it slip at the dock that Maleficent was pregnant some months later. This alarmed me, but I mostly tried to cover it up. It was only when I heard that she had had twins and was planning on killing the boy that I knew I had to do something. I told your mother the truth about why I had been so reserved and jumpy since my trip to the Isle. I was guilty. I hadn't been honest with her. I had cheated." Beast swallowed. "But, according to the garbage man, Maleficent had given birth to a girl and a boy. The girl appeared to be to Maleficent's liking - just like her. The boy was seemingly human in every way possible. Maleficent didn't approve."

"No, I didn't," Maleficent agreed.

"Maleficent, if you want to tell the story..."

"No, go on, go on."

Beast huffed. "Ben, you were that baby boy. The garbage man said she was planning on giving you to some dock workers to cast into the sea to drown. As much as I hated what I had done, I couldn't let an innocent child die. So, Belle and I agreed to take you in. We wanted children so badly. She was willing to forgive me and adopt you as her own. We agreed that if Maleficent was willing to kill you, then she likely saw nothing evil in you that she could corrupt and use to her advantage. It was a perfect plan. So, the garbage man volunteered to take you to drown you. But, instead, he delivered you to Fairy Godmother. And she brought you to us. We knew we could never tell you. The people of Auradon would not approve of a descendant of a villain being their king."

Ben was shaking his head. "You can't...you can't be serious. Mom. Mom, tell me he's lying."

Belle shook her head. "I wish I could, Ben. I really do." She swallowed. "I'm sorry. That's...that's why we were scared when you decided on your proclamation. We thought...well, we thought that once you met Mal, you might somehow realize something was wrong."

Ben glanced at Mal now, and Mal felt her chest seize. She was already dazed, just trying to absorb Beast's story. Now, under Ben's gaze, she felt like throwing up. "That's why you didn't want me dating her," he said, his eyes boring into Mal. "Because we're twins."

Maleficent grinned. "Ah, he finally gets it. Yes, and for the record, your birth name isn't Benjamin. Rotten, common name, if you ask me. No, I gave you something much worse, something sweet. Benevolent."

Ben swallowed. "What?"

Maleficent spread her arms, her scepter in one hand and the wand in the other. "Come now, come give Mummy a hug."

Mal sprung, anger driving her forward. She had been lied to. She had a brother. She had fallen in love with her brother. Everything was a lie. She collapsed onto the hand with the wand, wrestling it from her mother.

"By this wand in my hand, forever more leave this sacred land," Mal rattled off, thinking of the quickest rhyme to make a banishing spell.

Maleficent's eyes widened, and there was a flash of bright lavender light. When it disappeared, Maleficent's scepter clattered to the floor. She was gone, but Mal knew she had left a hurricane in the hall with them. Around her, people in the hall were now moving, unfrozen and living once again. Mal cast a glance toward Ben and then to Beast. At least now, she finally knew who her father was. She already knew it couldn't be a lie. Why would Beast and Belle agree with Maleficent if the story wasn't true?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N from original upload on fanfiction.net (12/14/2015): Thanks so much for reading the first chapter! I hope you guys enjoyed it. Remember to check my profile for periodic news on updates. Give this a fave, follow, and review if you liked it.
> 
> Foarrin


	2. Chapter 2

"Now, I have the results of the tests here," Fairy Godmother said. She was sitting behind her desk, addressing Beast, Belle, Ben, and Mal who were all in her office. It had been two days since the coronation. At the suggestion of the headmistress, they had agreed to blood DNA tests. The woman now held a manila envelope in her hand.

"Took long enough," Beast muttered. Belle laid a hand on his arm, attempting to calm him. They both stood by the door as Mal and Ben had been told to sit in the two chairs in front of the headmistress's desk.

Mal shifted in her seat. "And it'll tell us if Ben and I are really twins?"

"Well, since you aren't identical twins, it can only tell us that you are siblings. But, seeing as your birthdays are the same...it would stand to reason that would mean you'd be twins if you're related," Fairy Godmother said, popping the seal on the envelope.

Mal turned to Ben. "We have the same birthday?"

"I guess so. She would know, since she has our school files and stuff," Ben said, but he wouldn't look at her.

Mal nodded, her stomach turning over again. She hadn't seen Ben look up from the floor in the past two days.

Fairy Godmother slid a stack of papers out of the envelope and sifted through them. Some of the sheets looked like a bunch of numbers and complicated medical terms that Mal didn't understand. On the last page was a typed letter. This was the one the headmistress picked up and scanned quickly.

"Well?" Ben asked gruffly.

"The summarized results are that neither of you are related to Belle. Both of you have Beast as a father," she replied. Since Mal had banished Maleficent, they couldn't test Ben's relation to Maleficent. But, as Mal had voiced to Ben when it was being decided to do the tests, she didn't understand why his parents and Maleficent would actually agree on something like this if it wasn't true.

Now, Mal felt a mix of emotions race through her. Satisfaction came from finally knowing the missing piece of her heritage: her father. But it was almost instantly replaced by anger and confusion. Beast had been king for years and could have rescued her from her life on the Isle. He had purposely kept her there even after claiming Ben as his son. All because Maleficent hadn't threatened to kill her as an infant. Probably because she looked like Maleficent didn't hurt either.

"See, there you go," Beast said. He straightened his jacket. "Happy now that you've exposed me?"

Ben was out of his chair immediately. "Exposed you?" Ben snapped. "Exposing you would be telling the entire country. But only us, Evie, Jay, and Carlos know your secret. Do you want me to feel sorry for you that this happened? Because I'm not. You've only been protecting yourself all these years. You told me you chose to have one child, that it just wasn't in your agenda to have more than one heir. That was your excuse for never giving me siblings, which I wanted. Now, I get a girlfriend, and you tell me she's my twin sister." Ben exhaled heavily and took a step forward. "You tried to discourage my proclamation only because you thought having Mal here would corrupt me or remind me of something I couldn't possibly remember. Even when we started dating, you said nothing. You've had every opportunity to tell me. When would you have said something? When we got married or something? No, I'm never going to feel sorry for you. I only feel ashamed of you. Both of you."

Belle opened her mouth to say something, closed it, and sniffled. She closed her eyes for a long moment before opening them again. "I'm sorry you feel that way, Ben. We really were only trying to protect you." She slid her arm from Beast's and left the room.

Beast looked livid, a vein in his forehead throbbing. "You do not talk to your mother that way. Or me."

Ben drew himself up to his full height. "I have no parents."

Beast growled. "I did what I did to protect this country. It was barely started. After only four years of peace from the villains, how do you think people would have reacted to learning an heir to the throne had been sired with the worst possible villain?"

"Badly," Ben said, deflating slightly.

"Exactly. It was never an option to tell the truth. It would have been anarchy. Riots, rebellions. Do you have any idea what that information could be?"

"A weapon."

"Yes. You couldn't know. You couldn't know that you are not a legitimate heir to the throne. No one else could know either. Now, two days after your coronation, you want to start your rule by telling people you descend from Maleficent? Then be my guest. You see how long it is before people ship you to the Isle yourself." Beast looked to Mal and back to Ben. "We didn't tell you about Mal for the same reason. We weren't sure how to tell you. We were clinging to the hope you would just break up."

"What happens now? I mean, if he's not a legitimate heir?" Mal asked quietly.

Beast looked back at her. "Nothing. No one can ever know. You two broke up because you were just too different. You and your friends are permitted to stay. Ben will rule as planned. End of story. Now, I suggest you drop this. You know the truth, but that is all I can give you." He turned and left after Belle.

Mal felt as if the click of the door rang over and over in her mind. She knew what he meant. He could never act like a father to her, ever. It was too risky.

The shattering of a chair against the wall made Mal jump, pulling her back to reality. Ben was panting from where he had picked up his chair and thrown it against the door his father had just closed.

"Ben," Mal said softly, reaching out to touch his shoulder. He flinched away from her as if she'd burnt him.

"Leave me alone," Ben said. He sniffed and wiped the back of his jacket sleeve across his eyes. Then he straightened. "We just broke up, right? At least, we don't have to fake those emotions." He strode to the door, kicked the chair debris out of the way, and left, slamming the door behind him.

Mal closed her eyes, trying to hold herself together. Losing Ben romantically didn't hurt nearly as much as she thought it would have. It wasn't either of their choice. It wasn't because they didn't like each other, but rather that it had suddenly dissolved into something unavoidably platonic. It wasn't losing him like this that hurt. It was seeing him hurt and knowing that they should have grown up together. It was discovering they would have been close for sixteen years by this point in some other reality. It was knowing that that end result was likely impossible because of how betrayed and confused Ben probably felt. It was fearing Ben would never want anything to do with her now and that she had lost all possibility of them even being friends. It was knowing who her father was and having him look her in the eye and say he couldn't even acknowledge her as his daughter. That was what hurt.

"Mal?" Fairy Godmother asked quietly. "Are you alright?"

Mal nodded and wiped at her eyes, making sure there wasn't any trace of a single tear in them before she turned around. "Yes," she said. She glanced at the contents of the manila enveloped still lying on the desk. "Can I...May I have that?" She nodded to the desk.

"Oh, sure." The headmistress restacked all the papers and slipped them back into the envelope. She handed it over. "None of your names are mentioned in the file. You're all labeled as patients one through four. Just...in case anyone gets hold of it." She smiled.

Mal took the envelope and nodded. "Thank you, again. For everything." She held the envelope to her chest and left the office. Her mind was a flurry of anxiety about how these revelations would change her relationship with Ben or if they even had a chance of living as siblings now. She wondered, too, if Ben even wanted a sibling anymore.


	3. Chapter 3

Ben threw back the contents of the shot glass. The alcohol burned his throat, but it was getting easier to ignore it. He turned the shot glass over and placed it bottom up on the counter next to its two other empty siblings. He motioned for the barman to give him another.

It had been two weeks since the DNA test results. Even having some distance now, all Ben could feel was crushing depression. Those who knew, like Jay and Carlos, he felt like he had to avoid. That only made tourney practice less of a stress relief and more of a high tension emotional boxing match. He wanted to talk to someone, to vent his frustration. But everyone who knew about it was out of the question. His parents had betrayed him. Sure, they had somewhat viable reasons, but he was their son. They could have told him. They could have said something, anything. It would be weird to talk to Fairy Godmother too. He wasn't sure that conversation would even amount to more than him ending up paying for the damages to her office, which he was expecting a bill for. He hadn't seen the headmistress since then.

In all honesty, he hadn't seen anyone in the know since the DNA tests. He hadn't been home to the palace and had chosen to spend every weekend at the dorms now. He had glimpsed Mal and Evie down hallways at school or across the lawn at lunch. But, he hadn't spoken to either of them to figure out how Mal was handling things. Regardless, he and Mal had made it known that they had broken up. They were just too different. That was the story they were sticking to. As such, everyone assumed Ben's irritable attitude was because of the break up. But that was really only half of it. His whole existence felt like it was a lie.

He hadn't even told Chad the truth.

Chad had been Ben's best friend for as long as he could remember. They hadn't spoken much in the time when Mal and her friends had arrived and caused turmoil in his regular group of friends. But in the aftermath of the breakup and the additional information Ben had left out, Chad was supportive. That was why he was at a bar, drinking while underage. Like everyone else there.

The bar itself was actually more of a dance club where Auradon Prep students liked to hang out. There was a password to get in, but virtually every student knew it. The password only served to keep the adults out. There was no ID checks for the alcohol, which was why Chad had suggested Ben go that night. Actually, Chad had been trying to convince him to take the edge off with alcohol for the past week and a half. The depression and isolation had finally gotten to Ben bad enough that he had agreed.

Ben tossed back another shot and looked over his shoulder. The dance floor was crowded with people. The colored lights made it hard to make out some faces, but he found Chad easily enough. Chad was dancing with Audrey.

Ben hadn't been surprised that Audrey didn't break up with Chad the moment the story had started to circulate that he and Mal were over. Ben had assumed for weeks that Audrey had been seeing Chad behind his back. But it had been impossible to make himself care that she was. The passion, if there had ever been any, in Ben's relationship with Audrey had disappeared months ago. His breakup with Audrey was actually more of a relief than anything.

"You're an idiot, you know that?"

Ben turned his attention to his right. Mal had materialized at the counter beside him. She was eyeing his shot glasses.

"Perhaps," Ben answered. He motioned for a fifth one, and the bartender set about getting it ready.

"Stop. Just stop," Mal said, gripping his arm. He flinched away. "You're trying to drink this away?"

"Who said it has anything to do with you or us or whatever," Ben said, anger flaring in his chest.

Mal huffed, pinning him with a glare. "Ben. I've been giving you space. I'm only here right now because your mother's worried. She said you haven't been to any of your meetings this week. You can't just not show up to ambassador meetings. You're the king, and your actions affect everyone."

"I know!" Ben growled. It came out much louder than intended and made Mal flinch. Luckily, the pounding music kept other people from hearing though. "I know," he said again, lowering his voice. He took the fifth shot and set the empty glass back on the counter before grabbing her wrist and leading her away from the bar.

Not releasing his vice grip on her wrist, he led her to the back of the club and down a hallway. He opened a door just past the bathrooms and pulled her inside. He shut it with a click and then leaned against the door. His head was spinning. Leaning against the bar for the past half hour had given him the illusion of sobriety. Now that he had walked even that short distance, he was realizing just how tipsy he was.

"What is this place?" Mal asked from somewhere in the room behind him.

His eyes were shut as he tried to remain standing. "A break room or lounge or something. Chad's taken girls here before."

"Lovely," Mal said, her sarcasm obvious.

Ben pushed off of the door and slowly turned to face her. He had never been in the room before, but it looked just like Chad had described. It was a small sitting area with several couches and chairs. There was a fireplace on the opposite wall, and a mirror hung above the mantel.

"I know I've been neglecting my...kingly duties," Ben said. His gaze followed her as she moved over to the fireplace. The flames cast a glow on her features, and a sudden hatred filled him again as he remembered he couldn't kiss her now. "I've had no choice. Those ambassadors don't want to see me like this. It would do more damage than being a no show."

Mal frowned and looked at him. "Maybe so, but then shouldn't you reschedule or, I don't know, tell somebody that you're not showing up. Belle said she hasn't seen you since being in Fairy Godmother's office."

Ben shrugged a shoulder. "I'm not ready to see or talk to anyone." He frowned. "And you seem to be handling this perfectly fine. Damn, how are you doing it?"

"I've gotten good at hiding pain, Ben," Mal answered simply. She turned her attention back to the fire. "I've never known who my father is. I guess, growing up with an unanswered question makes you believe nothing is truly impossible. That...maybe I expected for it to be a shock to me regardless. But you thought everything in your life was stable. There was no reason for you to doubt."

Ben snorted. "Yeah, well, now I'm doubting everything. I can't look into a mirror without seeing the truth."

"What do you mean?"

"You can't see the Beast in you?" Ben asked. "Because I see the Maleficent in me."

Mal closed her eyes and sighed. "I don't know much about Beast. You've probably heard many more stories about Maleficent than I've heard about Beast. But no, I don't see the Beast in me. Not yet. I see nothing we share in common. How can you even think you're like Maleficent?" She opened her eyes and looked at him, her expression sad.

"It's in my eyes," Ben said. "It's in how I feel when I think about my parents now. Disgust. Outrage. Disgrace. Evil."

"Ben, you're not evil. Not even close," Mal said.

"How do you know?" Ben hissed, suddenly angry again. His emotions were all over the place, which was the same way he had been feeling for the past two weeks. "How do you know that, given the choice, I wouldn't have ended up evil? I could have grown up on that Isle with you. I could have lived an entirely different existence. EVERYTHING HAS BEEN A LIE!" With every heartbeat, Ben felt his anger pulse, like it was radiating out into the room as something physical. Then, quite suddenly, the fire was snuffled out, and the mirror above Mal's head shattered. She screamed as glass shards hit the floor at her feet.

They were both silent for a moment. Mal was staring at him.

"I didn't do that," Mal stated. "Ben..."

Ben shook his head, staring at the smoking wood in the fireplace and then to the broken mirror. "I told you. I can sense Maleficent in me."

Mal strode over to him and gripped his arms. "You are not like her," she said firmly. "I thought I was. For the longest time, I believed I didn't have a choice, and you gave me one. You made me realize I could choose my own fate, a path different than the one she chose for me."

"Then how do I know my path is right?" Ben countered. "I'm on the path my parents chose."

"Does it feel right?" Mal asked.

Ben shook his head. "I don't know." It was hard to sort out his thoughts or emotions about anything when he was sober. Now, it was triple the effort to think straight. "Only one thing in my life has ever felt right, and now it's wrong."

Mal frowned. "What do you mean?"

Ben hung his head, not wanting to see those beautiful eyes when he told her. "Us. It was the only thing I've actively chosen for myself. Tourney was my dad's suggestion. Dating Audrey came about because everyone at school thought we would look cute together. But you...no one saw what I saw. No one wanted to give you a chance. But I chose to do it, all on my own. And I had never been happier."

"I felt the same way," Mal said quietly. "I'm sorry."

"I've spent the last two weeks wishing to wake up from this nightmare. Or, if it has to be my reality, that my feelings for you would vanish overnight. Because they're making living difficult. They make breathing difficult."

"Ben, it's going to be ok." She squeezed his arm lightly. "We'll move on from this. We'll see other people."

A jolt of jealousy shot through Ben at the thought of seeing Mal dating someone else. He shook his head and raised his eyes to meet hers. "I don't think I can, Mal." he searched her face, hesitating. Then he wound his arms around her waist and pulled her flush against him.

"Ben," Mal said, her voice soft. It was a warning. "Don't."

Ben kissed her. Her lips were soft against his, but they were unmoving. She didn't return it, and he soon slackened his hold on her. She pushed away from him.

"I'll just..." Mal looked away from him. "I'll just talk to you when you're sober." She wiped at her eyes and then stepped around him. She slipped out the door, leaving him in the room alone.


	4. Chapter 4

"Is she alright?" Doug whispered.

"I don't know," Evie said just as softly. "She's been like that since she got back last night."

Mal was lying on her back, staring up at the underside of the canopy of her bed. She had gotten back late from the club and talking to Ben. She hadn't realized she had woken Evie up. The night was a blur. She had climbed into bed fully dressed. Every single thought was about Ben and how he had kissed her even though he knew it was wrong. He had to know that, didn't he? And if she managed to tear her thoughts from the kiss, the hollowness in Ben's eyes haunted her. It was like he was being eaten alive from the inside. The truth of their parentage had drained him of his usual happy presence. And then there was his magic. She couldn't even begin to dwell on it. He had scared her. His eyes had glowed green like she had seen her mother's do on countless occasions. He hadn't used a spell or anything. It was explosive. And she couldn't help but wonder if her magic was capable of something similar. She really didn't want to think about how much they both might be able to do with a little practice.

"Has she slept at all?" Doug asked.

"I don't know. I couldn't get anything out of her."

Mal wished they would just focus on studying. That was why Doug was there in the middle of the morning on a weekend. He and Evie had a huge chemistry test or something to study for. But, even if he hadn't been there, she wasn't sure she would be up for talking about the night's events. Then again, without him there, Evie would have likely been prodding her for information again.

Mal sighed and glanced toward the TV. Carlos and Jay had been invited for the study session too, but just so they could catch up on general homework. They had worked for about fifteen minutes and then elected to take a videogame break. The 'break' had lasted about an hour now with Evie having to interject every time they were too loud and getting distracting.

"It's a pity. Ben finally seemed happy with life, and then his girlfriend turns out to be his twin."

Mal sat up instantly, her stare zeroing in on Doug. Then she looked to Evie. "You told him?" she snapped.

Evie opened her mouth as if to explain. Then she deflated and closed her mouth.

"I can't believe this. This could ruin Ben, you know."

"I-I know, Mal. But I trust Doug with my life. You know he would never tell anything that would put Ben in danger," Evie said quickly. Doug nodded in agreement.

Mal narrowed her eyes. "Beast doesn't want this going public. No one should want it going public! If you-"

"I won't," Doug said. "I know. Beast's concerned about rebellion and riots. Total anarchy. Evie didn't have to tell me that much. I figured that out on my own. It's, like, Government 101 here: villains only have power if you give it to them. And the people could see Ben as a villain if they knew. I understand the situation, Mal, don't worry. "

Mal huffed and looked away. Carlos and Jay had paused their game at the sound of Mal's outburst.

"Besides," Doug said slowly, "I've had suspicions about Ben in the past."

Mal's attention swiveled back to him. "Why?"

Doug swallowed and adjusted his cuff. "I met Ben in kindergarten. A lot of us here went to the same school when we were that little actually. Anyways, there were a couple times on the playground that things...happened."

Mal's stomach clenched uncomfortably. Based on what she had seen the night before, she was assuming he was hinting at one very large sign that Ben would have been adopted. "Magic," she said softly.

Doug nodded. "I didn't know that's what it was back then. But sometimes a ball he was playing with would suddenly be a different color. Or a jump rope once tied a perfect bow around this kid's feet when Ben caught him teasing me about my glasses." Doug looked between them all as the four friends were now staring at him. He looked down at his hands in his lap. "But I haven't seen it happen much, or at all, after about second grade. It just happened less and less. No one seemed to notice in the first place. But that's...that's why I'm a little obsessed with magic. He shouldn't have it. Or, that's what I thought."

Something was chewing at Mal's mind. Something didn't feel right at all. "It just stopped?" she asked.

Doug shrugged a shoulder. "In my research, I've learned that some magic goes away. A child may manifest some powers, but if they don't have much, they just sort of outgrow it."

"Does it ever come back?" Mal asked.

Doug shook his head. "If they outgrow it naturally, it shouldn't come back. All the case studies I've read came to that conclusion. There's other cases where it could be dormant."

"How so?"

"Well, if there's a traumatic experience that makes them afraid to use their magic. Or they just decide to try to shut it off from themselves. There could be multiple reasons. But, as for Ben...I thought he outgrew it. I thought that maybe Beast or Belle had had magic when they were younger too, so that would have been understandable. Or, on the other hand, he could have just gotten good at hiding it. They could have hired a teacher so he could learn to control it."

Mal looked away, thinking. Beast and Belle wouldn't have taken the chance with hiring a magic tutor. Too many people in Auradon knew their story and could have guessed or even researched if either of them had had magic at one point in their lives. And if Ben's magic had manifested as anything even slightly resembling Maleficent, even in color...Beast wouldn't have gone for it; it was too recognizable. But Ben also hadn't gotten good at hiding it, Mal guessed. He had seemed too shocked at his display of magic at the bar. Like he was scared of it. That wasn't the reaction of someone who was in control of their magic. Had someone forced Ben's magic into dormancy without his knowledge? Was that even possible?

"-like a princess too, am I right?" Jay laughed. Evie smiled.

"What?" Mal asked when she realized Jay was expecting a response from her too.

Jay rolled his eyes playfully. "Geez, Mal, pay attention. I was trying to lighten the mood by saying you're technically a princess too, you know?"

Mal gave him a forced smile. "Right. Guess I missed out on all the ball gowns and tea parties though." She had meant it as a joke, but Jay frowned and murmured an apology. Honestly, she had thought about it. Being Beast's daughter meant she was technically a princess of Auradon too. If just a few genes had been switched, Ben could have been the one with purple hair leading a gang on the Isle. She would have been a pampered princess and would have probably been best friends with Audrey. The thought made her shudder.

"Well, I'm glad Mal was on the Isle," Evie said proudly. She smiled sheepishly at Mal. "Or else I wouldn't have you as my sister."

Mal smiled.

"Wait, so back to the subject, Doug," Carlos said. "Are you saying Ben should have magic since he's really Maleficent's son?"

Doug nodded. "Theoretically. It's possible he didn't inherit any from her. It would be strange if he didn't though, but unless he's got some super control on it, it's curious how he hasn't slipped up once at school in the time I've known him. Stress, including stuff like strenuous activity, can make control weak."

"Like sports?" Carlos asked.

Doug nodded. "Why? Have you seen anything?"

Carlos glanced at Jay and then back to Doug. "Not entirely, no. But...there were some people on the Isle who used to have magic before the barrier was put up. They've told stories about how they have markings that they were born with that have something to do with their magic."

"I think those are birthmarks passed down genetically in old magic families. They show up on the descendants of the lineage who have magic; people with those are supposed to have huge magical capabilities."

Mal raised an eyebrow. She knew about the markings of old magic families. She had one herself just between her shoulder blades. Her mother had wasted no time educating her on it during her years on the Isle. It marked her importance as part of Maleficent's bloodline. It was a gift, a stamp of her potential as an evil sorceress. But she had no idea where Carlos was going with this. According to Maleficent, the birthmarks showed up in the same place for every descendant of the particular bloodline. And Mal had seen Ben without his shirt when he had gone swimming on their date. There was no marking on his back. Mal hadn't even thought about it since Ben's show of magic, but that was probably a good sign that he didn't have a birthmark of their lineage. It meant he had less magic and could live practically as human. At least, that's what Maleficent had explained: no mark, no magic.

But things weren't adding up still. Ben obviously had magic. So, he should have had the mark too.

"What can they look like? The ones I've seen are black like regular tattoos."

"Shape-wise, anything. They're like a family crest or predominant symbol. But, yeah, probably like regular tattoos. I've only seen them in books really. What does this have to do with sports?"

Carlos took a deep breath. "Jay and I change in the locker room with Ben before and after practice, right? Well, I think Ben has one of those symbols. I thought Mal drew it though."

Mal looked up. "What? No, he doesn't."

Carlos nodded. "One day we were changing, and it wasn't there. The next day, he had this tattoo thing. I just assumed that maybe you had drawn it on. But now it makes sense. I mean..." He frowned, scrunching his nose in confusion. "I mean, do you have one Mal? Between your shoulder blades?"

Mal nodded stiffly. Her insides felt like rocks. She pushed back her covers and stood. Shedding her jacket, she turned so Carlos could see her back. She was wearing a spaghetti strap tank top that exposed her upper back where the marking was. "Does it look like this?" It was pretty much a silhouette of Maleficent's head, horns and all. But it was more animal in shape than entirely human. To Mal, it resembled her mother's dragon form head more than her human one.

"Yeah, that's it. Same one and everything," Carlos said.

She turned back to face them. "You're telling me it just appeared?"

"That's...possible," Doug said slowly. "If his magic went dormant for some reason and then you showed up...well, I mean, you're his twin. Twin magic is a whole other spectrum of magic. It's weird and can do things normal magic can't."

"You're saying me coming to Auradon made it appear?" Mal asked.

Doug nodded. "It could be the case. But, we have no reason to believe he has magic other than that. I mean, he used to, but-"

"He does," Mal said, cutting him off. "I've seen it. But...this marking. It means his magic is more powerful than an average person, right?"

"Mal, all the stuff I know is from books. These are all theories," Doug said, shaking his head. "I don't know."

Mal's head was spinning. Ben had magic. Not only that, but now he had the mark of Maleficent's lineage. Meaning...meaning...

Mal swallowed and tried to focus. Mal's magic had been suppressed by the barrier for years. But it had also had an immediate healthy outlet when she used her mother's spellbook upon coming to Auradon. Also, Maleficent had tried her best to teach Mal strategies on how to control the magic in the case that the barrier was ever broken through. Untamed magic was dangerous. She had felt a strong pull each time she used a spell since then.

On the other hand, Ben's magic seemed to have been, Mal guessed, forcibly contained without any outlet. At least, that's how it sounded to Mal from Doug's deductions and Ben's reaction to his magic. Now, Ben was drinking and angry and losing control of his life, not just any magic he could have.

It was suddenly like a domino effect in her mind as things fell into place. Ben had talked about not knowing what he would have really been like if given the choice. He had said he was on his parents' path. He had been scared of being like Maleficent. Fear had drowned out the light in his eyes when he broke the mirror and killed the fire. He had been afraid to even entertain the thought of his magic. But not only that. He had seemed surprised that he had magic. He had been surprised to be told he was Maleficent's son. Meaning...

He had never seen the mark. It wasn't an easy thing to spot on one's own. In Mal's experience, it was impossible to see without the aid of two mirrors. But she knew that he didn't know about his mark. Maleficent's silhouette was infamous and easily recognizable even when distorted like the tattoo was. It would have been suspicious to have that marking. It would have been suspicious to have old ancient magic, uncontrollable magic. Magic that no amount of ordinary magic tutors could even hope to control for a child.

So what had happened? What had made Ben's magic go dormant? And why didn't he seem to remember having magic at all? There were missing links that she knew she had to find. If Ben's magic was as powerful as she believed and it had been contained and was now being put under pressure from Ben's emotions...it was only a matter of time before it became even more explosive than it had been at the bar.

"Where are you going?" Evie asked.

Mal was tugging on her boots and lacing them up. "I'm going to the palace. I think I need a little daddy-daughter bonding time with Beast."


	5. Chapter 5

It took Mal no more than twenty minutes to travel from the dorm to the palace. When she marched up the front steps, the guards on either side of the double doors backed off immediately. Not very good security in her opinion. But then again, they had probably seen the murderous rage burning in her eyes. In just a few short moments, she had worked out much of what she assumed Beast had done, and she wasn't happy. She had successfully worked herself up into a tantrum that was about to be unleashed on the former king himself.

This was also why when Mal entered the sitting room just outside Beast's office, she didn't even register Belle and Ben sitting on the couch. A tray of tea and cookies sat untouched on the coffee table in front of them. Ben's expression seemed to say that he assumed the tea was poison. Or maybe his foot was caught in a bear trap. Either way, he appeared to be in physical pain just sitting there.

"Mal?"

Belle's interjection didn't even graze Mal's thought process. Mal simply stormed to the other side of the room, wrenched open the door to Beast's office, and went inside.

Beast looked up from his desk, which was ironically decorated with several framed photos of Ben celebrating various athletic or academic accomplishments over the years. "You shouldn't be here."

"And why not?" Mal demanded, putting her hands on her hips. She exhaled heavily, out of breath from her near sprint to the palace.

"You are no longer dating Ben. All of his friends see him at school or on campus. It may look..." Beast frowned at her. "Suspicious."

"Well, then, I won't be here as a concerned party for Ben," Mal said quickly. "I'll be here as a concerned citizen."

Behind her, the door opened, and she glanced over her shoulder to see Belle and Ben enter.

"What's going on here?" Belle asked, her eyebrows pulled together in concern as she surveyed Mal and her husband.

"I'll tell you what's going on," Mal said. She turned back to Beast. "You knew Ben had magic when he was younger, didn't you? You saw the mark of Maleficent's bloodline on his back and pushed his magic into dormancy."

Beast's jaw tightened, and he slowly removed his glasses, folded them, and laid them on the desk. He stood, walked to the door, and closed it with a click. When he turned back to Mal, his eyes were dark and murderous, just like hers. "How do you know Ben had magic?"

"Because-"

"Because," Ben interjected. "I manifested some of it last night." He stared down his father, as if daring him to deny any such knowledge of Ben's magic.

Beast looked between Mal and Ben and then to Belle. Belle seemed faint like she had at the coronation. She just shook her head. "If you're going to tell them, I can't listen to this again." She turned and left. Once the door had closed behind her, there was a faint sob from the other side of the door.

"What does she mean 'again'?" Ben asked. "And tell us what?"

Beast growled, and Mal saw a shadow of his former animal self flash across his face. "She agreed to it. I told her my methods were necessary."

"You forced it out of him, didn't you?" Mal snapped. "You forced him to be scared of his own magic!"

"I did what was necessary for this country and for my son," Beast said fiercely.

"Somebody explain!" Ben said. "Obviously, both of you know what's going on with me, so explain. Now."

Beast breathed heavily, eyeing Mal. "Well, go on. If you know so much, explain, Mal, please."

Mal resisted the urge to punch him in the gut from the use of his mocking sugary sweet tone. Instead, she turned to Ben and exhaled slowly. "What happened last night. We both know that was magic, and it wasn't mine."

"Yeah, I'd worked that much out," Ben said.

Mal nodded and continued. She explained about the pieces of information she had gathered from Doug, Jay, and Carlos and how she had worked out that Ben's magic must have been forced to go dormant at an early age without him even realizing he had it. She further explained the birthmark and its meaning of passing on bloodline magic.

"And you saw it," she said to Beast. "You did something to make him scared of using his magic."

Beast's arms were crossed over his chest. "Like I said, I did what was necessary. The mark didn't appear until he was six. He was a late bloomer. Belle and I knew what the mark meant. We agreed his magic was too dangerous. She didn't necessarily approve of the methods I used; she couldn't stand me telling her how I did it. But I was desperate. The longer it took to dispel Ben's magic and that mark upon his back, the longer I ran the risk of him retaining memory of his magic. Once the mark disappeared and I was sure he was safe from himself and Maleficent's inherited magic, I could easily explain any lingering memories of the magic incidents as an overactive imagination."

"So, all this time, I've had magic," Ben said. "You hid it from me when I could have been trained to use it properly?!"

"You don't understand," Beast hissed. "The way the magic manifested was exactly like Maleficent's. Green smoke, glowing green eyes. And that mark on your back. It was too big to cover up. It would have made life difficult. It would have gotten impossible to hide. It was better this way. You could grow up normally. Your mother and I never had magic. If it was discovered you did, there would have been questions. Our lineages are completely devoid of magic. It would be unheard of for you to have such magic. People would have talked. They would have figured out you weren't our son completely. I did it to protect you."

"No," Ben said. "You did it to protect yourself. Again. You could have let me use my magic. At least then when I was exiled back to the Isle, I would have grown up with a sister, not parents who only lied to me."

"Don't tell me what I did and didn't do!" Beast shouted. "When you are a parent, you will understand that what I did was in your best interest. It gave you a life here where you are popular, well-educated, athletic, and a leader. Life on the Isle would not have permitted any such honor."

"Honor?" Ben laughed. "You think this is about having a good, prosperous life or being liked? This is about not knowing who I am anymore. This is about learning I have another half I didn't even know about: Maleficent as my mother and Mal as my sister. I don't want to hear about how good my life is here. I want you to understand that you deprived me of the one thing I always wanted."

"And what is that?" Beast asked, his tone hostile.

"A family."

Beast flinched as if he'd been stung. "Your mother and I gave you a family."

"No, you gave me lessons and lectures. You gave me a structured path to follow. Do this. Do that. Mom was always busy with clubs and bake sales and parties. You were always busy with running the kingdom. You never gave me the siblings I wanted. Did you ever think that there was a reason I stayed on campus so much? This palace isn't home. It never was. It's an empty prison. It's lonely and suffocating and the last place I ever wanted to be, but I didn't have a choice. At least on the Isle, I would've had a sister and friends in Evie, Carlos, and Jay. They're more my friends than anyone in Auradon has ever been." Ben took a breath, shuddering and closing his hands into fists. A tear slid down his cheek and off his jaw. "I could've grown up with Mal. But instead, you allowed me to date her. You didn't say a damn word as I fell in love with her. And now, it's too late. Loving her like this, I don't see how I can ever just love her as a sister. I wanted a sibling bond, and you stole that from me. You made decisions for me that weren't yours to make. You should have let them drown me."

"Ben," Mal said softly. Her heart was wringing itself like a damp cloth, and pain coursed through her chest. She wondered if Ben had momentarily forgotten she was there as he unleashed his words on his father.

Ben ignored her, still staring at Beast.

Beast looked at if he had been shot multiple times in the chest. Complete devastation was written on his face. "I did what I did to protect you," he repeated quietly.

Ben laughed. "As if. You still haven't told us what you did exactly."

Beast sighed, deflating as if the fight had been knocked out of him. "Go to the cellar. You'll see. I doubt that anything you see down there could make you hate me more than you already do. But, just remember, I did it because I thought I was giving you the life you deserved."

Ben gave a curt nod and left.

Mal watched Beast as he returned to his desk and slid his glasses back on. "You shouldn't have done it. Whatever your reason, it's only made the magic grow stronger. It's liable to become explosive now. At least, it was last night."

"Then...I'll leave it up to you to help him. I can't do any more. I've lost him." Beast sighed and dropped his head into his hands. "Go. Follow him. He won't be able to handle what he sees down there."


	6. Chapter 6

It took Mal longer to reach the cellar than she would have liked. Upon leaving Beast's office, she found the sitting room outside void of any presence of Belle or Ben. She figured Ben was at least two corridors ahead of her now, and she wasn't quite sure where the cellar even was. By the time she found a servant to ask for directions and actually found her way to the downstairs kitchen and through the pantry and down the trapdoor and stairs to the wine cellar, Ben had been there a good ten minutes, alone.

As she descended the steps, the echoes of choked sobs reached her ears. "Ben?" she called. She hurried down the last few steps and found herself in a small cubicle room. Its walls were made of concrete, and harsh fluorescent lights ribbed the low ceiling. The light didn't quite reach the edges of the room, but Mal could still easily see everything. Shelves of dusty wine bottles took up three of the four walls. A metal trough sat against the wall closest to the stairs. A coil of rope lay on the seat of a chair next to it.

Ben was near the right wall. He had seated himself beside a wooden crate so his back pressed against it. Tears ran down his face, and he wiped at them sporadically so that his face was smeared and made wetter.

Mal walked over to him slowly, not wanting to startle him. She sat down next to him. "Ben. What is it?" So far, she hadn't seen anything alarming or out of place for a wine cellar.

Ben jerked his head in the direction of the stairs.

She followed his gaze. "What? The chair? The rope?" Suddenly, she felt a nasty twist in her stomach in anticipation of what he would say.

"I remember," he answered softly. "I haven't been down here in years. No reason to be really. But, I remembered as soon as I saw it. It just all sort of ran through my head like a movie." He hugged his knees closer to his chest. "He did terrible things, Mal."

Mal looked from Ben to the chair. She wanted to ask. But, at the same time, she was scared of the answer. Luckily, she didn't have to pry because Ben soon explained, "He'd send servants to spy on me at school. Called them 'security details' so my teachers didn't get suspicious. They'd report back if anything...odd happened. Magic, I mean. If he heard I'd used magic, he'd bring me down here."

Ben stopped and laid his head on his knees, pressing his forehead against them.

Mal was silent, not wanting to press him for details. But she also didn't know what to say or do. How could she help him if she didn't know the severity of the fear they were dealing with? "What...what did he do, Ben?"

"Depends," Ben said, his voice muffled as he spoke to his lap and the angle of his neck distorted some of his words. "Tie me to the chair and leave me down here in the dark from the time I got home from school to the time I had to leave again for school the next day. No food or water. Beat me. Never in the face, so no one could see it. Mom was so angry when he broke two of my ribs one time." He managed a laugh here, but it abruptly turned into more sobs. "And he'd...he'd fill the trough with water...hold my head under...sometimes, I'd black out and wake up...i-in the d-dark...by myself...sopping wet...and tied to the chair again."

Horrified at the thought of Beast doing that to Ben as a child, or at all really, Mal hesitated and then drew him into a hug. If anything, this made him sob harder as he clung to her shirt and buried his face against her ribs. "Ben, I'm so sorry that happened."

Several minutes passed in which Mal held Ben close and rubbed his back. Finally, Ben spoke again, "I still can't sleep with all the lights out in my room." It came out as a mumble. "I've never known why I'm afraid of the dark. Now, I guess that mystery's solved."

Mal gave him a squeeze. "I know. I'm sorry."

"He ruined everything," Ben said, and his voice rose on the next word as he raised his head to look at her. "Everything!"

The breath in Mal's lungs froze when she saw his face. His eyes were blazing green beacons, glowing like Maleficent's own. And green smoke curled away from his temples. To anyone else, this would have seemed like his head was about to explode. But Mal saw the smoke take the shape of horns. They were faint and vanished as quickly as they had formed.

"Ben, breathe," she told him, scared his temper would cause his magic to lash out again like it had the previous night.

Ben sighed, and Mal felt his hands curl into fists on her hips, and he pressed his forehead against her sternum now.

After several minutes of slow and steady breathing, Ben continued in a much calmer voice, "I was six. He didn't stop until I was nearly eight." His grip on her waist tightened. "What sort of man does that to his child?" Ben hissed.

"The same one that leaves his other child on an island for sixteen years and pretends she doesn't exist," Mal answered without thinking. It may have been harsh, but it was true. Beast could make any excuse he wanted, but in her mind, it would always sting to know that he had saved one child to 'give him the life he thought he deserved' and left the other one to live with Maleficent.

"He's the one who should have been exiled to the Isle for what he did. If anyone's a villain, he is," Ben growled. "He took everything from us, twice."

"Twice?" She looked down at the top of his head, her hand that had been rubbing circles into his back now pausing.

"Once when he allowed us to be separated as infants instead of just charging onto the Isle and taking you too. And again when you came here. He could have said something when you arrived, before...before we fell in love." Ben sighed. "I saw a future with you. I had hope. He could have said something right away and saved me even a little bit of this pain. At least then, when we found out, it wouldn't have hurt. It would have felt like a reunion, and I could have gotten to know you as a sister."

"You still can," Mal whispered.

Ben sat up a little bit so they were now face-to-face. "No, I can't. Don't you understand? I love you. As in, I honestly still love you. Deeply. And if your...our mother hadn't shown up and exposed the secret, we would still be together. The only difference is that we know now."

"That makes all the difference in the world, Ben," Mal said, her back tensing. If he was about to suggest that they continue dating even though they knew the truth of their relation, he was insane.

"Why does it have to? We didn't grow up together."

Mal was at a loss for words. She was shocked he was even suggesting something like that. The revelation of his father's betrayal must have really unhinged him. If he had been thinking clearly, surely he would realize the same as her: pretending they weren't siblings was impossible now. Sooner or later, he'd have to come to terms with that and let it sink in. Then, maybe they could behave like siblings.

She blinked and realized he was staring at her with those beautiful eyes of his that she loved so much. They were pleading, and his face was much too close to hers. But she didn't move. She felt frozen, rooted to the spot as if she were the one tied to the chair. And when she didn't move to stop him, Ben slid his hands up her sides. One hand stopped under one of her breasts and the other moved to her neck. He used the thumb of this hand to angle her head as he kissed her softly.

This time, she couldn't help it. Whereas the previous night, she hadn't responded, she now moved her mouth against his and pressed into his embrace. She twisted her fingers into his shirt and drew him close. All of the fear and uncertainty of the past two weeks since the coronation came bubbling to the surface as she sought comfort in the familiarity of Ben's kiss. His love was soothing. With him, she knew she was wanted and had a bigger purpose in life than simply being Maleficent's smaller and younger shadow. She needed him. He embodied everything she needed and wanted in her new life in Auradon.

But, simultaneously, she knew it was wrong to want that, to want Ben now. Her shoulders sagged, and she pushed him back, breaking their kiss.

He watched her, and she just shook her head. Not wanting to hear any of his pleas or give him a chance to kiss her again and convince her this was ok, she jumped to her feet and ran up the stairs to escape the cellar that she assumed would now hold more than one bad memory for Ben.


	7. Chapter 7

Mal closed her bedroom door behind her and pressed her forehead against the wood. She had just returned from the palace, and her emotions felt like a hurricane brewing within her. It wasn't even noon yet, and she had already cycled through so many emotions that it was insane. Anger over Beast's actions to make Ben fearful of his own magic. Sorrow over what Ben had been through as a child. Love for Ben himself. Confusion over that same love.

She sighed heavily.

"Mal? Are you ok?"

Mal's eyes shot open, and her back tensed sharply. In all of the rush to get away from the palace and back to the comfort of her own room, she had forgotten about what, or who, would be there.

She turned around and met the concerned and inquisitive faces of Evie and Doug. They were still seated at the table in the center of the room, textbooks open in front of them. Carlos and Jay were nowhere to be seen.

"Hey," Mal said hoarsely. Her throat had constricted in the effort to hold back tears. It was lucky she hadn't released them the instant she closed the door. She would have hated for Evie and Doug to see that. She didn't cry in front of anyone. Ever. "Where are Carlos and Jay?" She hurriedly blinked her eyes to rid them of the moisture that had collected on the lower lids.

"Chad and some of the tourney guys came by shortly after you left," Evie said. "Still haven't touched their homework, of course." They shared a small smile, but Evie didn't let the matter rest long. "Mal, seriously, are you ok?"

Mal opened her mouth to tell Evie some lie about how she was perfectly fine and simply exhausted and needed sleep. But instead, the instant she opened her mouth, her throat constricted even tighter and her jaw stiffened, nearly seizing as she fought back the urge to cry. She couldn't breathe. She knew if she allowed herself to, it would usher in the tears and she wouldn't be able to stop.

She shook her head and dashed for the bathroom. She slammed the door behind her and fell against it. She slid down it until she could sit on the floor.

The tears came, leaving her like water from a broken dam. She cried loudly and heavily, unlike she could ever remember crying before in her life. Before now, she had had nothing to lose, nothing to feel sorrow over. But now, she had lost Ben and any hope they had had together. It hadn't hit her before. It was as if the past two weeks had been a dream she assumed she would wake up from. Now though, it all felt real. So raw. So hopeless. Their kiss had made her realize it. When she had actually let herself melt into his kiss, it had triggered the realization. And now it hurt. It hurt too much.

"Mal?" Evie's voice was soft from the other side of the door, and Mal could tell the other girl had seated herself on the opposite side. "Mal, what's wrong? What happened?"

"You know what happened!" Mal said, the words pouring from her as heavily as her tears. She was soaking her hands and face. The tears were cold sliding down her neck and under her collar. "We're twins. But I can't turn off how I feel about him! I tried, Evie, and I can't. I love him too much. It didn't feel real until today. We didn't grow up together...it didn't feel like we could possibly be siblings. It felt like some practical joke. But here we are, and I hate myself for still loving him this way. Because it's wrong. And I know it. And he knows it. But he still wants to be together."

"He...he does?" Evie asked. "But, Mal, you...I..."

"I know it's wrong!" Mal clenched her hands into fists on her legs, wanting to pound something but already feeling more exhaustion hit her from the crying. "But, I mean...no one...n-no one would know. Just a handful of people. The citizens of Auradon would never know because they, well, they can't know we're related."

"Mal," Evie sighed. "You can't use that reasoning. You know it's not right."

Mal slammed her head back against the door. "What isn't right was keeping this all a secret in the first place! Beast or Belle or somebody should have said something the instant we started dating! Ben was right. I mean, when would they have told us? When we were standing up on our wedding day and they asked if anyone had any objections?!" She slammed her head back again, creating a dull throbbing at the back of her skull. More tears came then, though not from the physical pain. The pain in her soul was much more powerful.

"None of it's right, Mal," Evie said. "But don't make it worse by torturing yourself. You'll spend every day for the rest of your life wrestling with the thought of dating your brother if you do. You know that, don't you?"

Mal rested her head against the door, staring blearily at the ceiling. "I don't know anything anymore, E."

If Evie said anything else after that, Mal didn't hear it. Exhaustion overwhelmed her, and she curled up on the cool tile. Her chest ached, wanting to make her cry more about Ben and everything that had happened. But the more sensible part of her body demanded sleep, and she passed into a deep sleep.

* * *

"Mal. Mal, get up!"

Mal blinked open her eyes. Her entire body ached, and she slowly recalled passing out on the bathroom floor. She wasn't sure how long ago that had been, but Evie was now kneeling beside her on the tile, shaking her shoulder to wake her.

She groaned and sat up. Everything hurt, particularly her head and shoulder. "What time is it?"

"It's morning. You slept the whole day. Almost twenty-four hours," Evie said.

"Ugh, then why do I still feel so exhausted?" Mal rubbed at her eyes. "What's wrong?" Mal had just noticed that Evie was tugging on the cuffs of her jacket nervously, like she did whenever she was worried. Mal laid a hand over Evie's to stop her. "You're going to ruin that jacket if you keep doing that."

Evie didn't seem phased. "Mal, something's happened. Something awful. And I'm so sorry! I never should have told."

Ice ran down Mal's spine, and she sat up a little straighter. "What did you do?" It wasn't meant to sound accusatory, but Mal was terrified to hear the answer. At the same time, she needed to know.

"I mean, I'm sorry that I ever told Doug," Evie said. Tears suddenly fell from her eyes. "Oh, Mal, it's all over the news! The TV, newspapers, everywhere. Doug told."

"You mean..." Mal suddenly felt as if the world were tilting on its edge, sending her off balance and her hand that was keeping her propped up on the tile now slid a bit.

"Everybody knows. Everyone knows that Ben is Maleficent's son."


	8. Chapter 8

Mal was stunned. It felt as if all feeling had been drained out of her and replaced with panic. "You said..." She cleared her throat and forced herself to focus on Evie's face. "You said it's on TV?"

Evie nodded quickly. "It's the only thing on TV. It's breaking news."

Mal reached above her and gripped the edge of the vanity. She pulled herself up and slumped against it for a moment while Evie got to her feet as well. Both girls then moved into the main room.

The TV on the wall in their room was already turned on, its volume low. Mal assumed Evie had turned down the volume since it was usually blaring from Jay and Carlos using it for videogames whenever they were over in the girls' room.

On the screen was a female reporter with short curly black hair and an extremely pale complexion: Snow White. Mal remembered that she had done the news coverage of the coronation as well. Now, Snow White was standing in front of the palace, speaking directly to the camera. The banner across the bottom of the screen read: 'BREAKING NEWS: KING BEN REALLY THE SON OF MALEFICENT'. Mal grabbed the remote from Evie's bed and turned up the volume.

"-calls for closer inspection," Snow White was saying. "If such seemingly trustworthy royals have kept a secret like this for this long, what else have they been hiding? Some people are already speculating that this may have a bigger plot to it than meets the eye. Did King Beast make a deal with Maleficent to father an heir that could rule both the villains and heroes? One that both groups could support? If this was the case, did King Ben know his heritage? Our sources say this is not true and that this has been just as big of a blow to him as it is to the rest of us. However, the palace could not be reached for contact at this time. Back to you, Cindy."

The image changed to one of a studio news room. A blonde woman with her hair pulled up into a tight ponytail smiled into the camera. "Thank you, Snow." She shuffled the papers on the desk in front of her. "We've been receiving calls all morning to address this breaking news. In case you're just tuning in, we received a story last night from an individual that wishes to remain anonymous at this present time. This source says that during Maleficent's intrusion and eventual defeat at the coronation several weeks ago, it was revealed that Ben's biological mother is, in fact, no other than Maleficent herself. The source also claims that Beast is still King Ben's biological father, but that he is also Isle of the Lost emigrant Mal's biological father, seemingly making Mal and Ben twins due to their birthdays alone. Some viewers have been concerned that this cannot possibly be true and that this is a hoax or rumor. However, our source also provided us with multiple documents proving that the royal family and Mal took DNA tests just days after the coronation." Cinderella tapped the stack of papers in front of her. "When contacted for information, the hospital revealed that this was true and that Beast is the father of both Ben and Mal. Belle is not biologically related to either subject."

There was a moment's hesitation as if the teleprompter in front of Cinderella had stalled. She quickly continued, "We have just received a call asking how this is legal since patient records are under the protection of privacy laws. Yes, that is true, but this case was deemed a national security issue, which overrides such laws. Thus, public access is granted to these documents and information." She smiled and moved on. "Of course, this calls to question what will happen now. The Council of Auradon, which of course is made up of the heads of all species and ruling city heads in Auradon has already been in session with each other via video calls. The Council could elect to remove King Ben from office and appoint a new ruling family. However, a meeting will be held tonight at the palace in Auradon with King Ben before any such decisions are made. Representatives of the Council are already on their way here as we speak. Stay tuned for more updates in this riveting story."

Mal muted the TV. She slowly turned to Evie. She didn't know whether to be angry, sad, or what. Instead of screaming like she wanted, she whispered hoarsely, "Can they do that?"

Evie nodded, her eyes wide. "I take Government 101. Auradon has a Council that meets with the king every so often. They bring their concerns and proposals to him and the rest of the Council for decision-making. Theoretically, if given a reason to doubt Ben's ability to rule, they have the power to remove him like they said. It's a way of balancing the royals' power so the people get a say."

Mal shook her head. "They can't do that! Ben didn't know. He's still the same Ben they loved two weeks ago! And those records..." She trailed off and dashed to her side of the room. She wrenched open the top drawer of her nightstand and stared down into it. The hospital records that Fairy Godmother had given her were gone. She turned back to Evie, anger suddenly boiling in her veins. "How much did you tell Doug exactly?"

Evie flinched as if Mal had smacked her, and Mal wondered if her eyes had sparked their radioactive green like they did sometimes. "I...everything," she whispered. "I thought we could trust him."

"Well, you thought wrong, didn't you?!" Mal yelled. She couldn't believe it. Not only had Doug told for some unknown reason, but he had also stolen from her. The absolute nerve of him to steal from a villain kid! Didn't he know that they were the best thieves? It was an insult to have something stolen from herself. She huffed. "They might send Ben to the Isle. Do you understand the gravity of this? If people are angry or panicked enough, they could send all three of them there. And what do you think the Isle people will do to Beast, Belle, and Ben? They're everything about Auradon that we hated on the Isle. They'll be dead within a day."

"I know," Evie whispered.

Mal huffed again and turned away from her. She couldn't blame Evie truly. Mal had thought Doug could be trusted too if she was honest with herself, but that didn't change the fact of what they were dealing with now because Evie had trusted Doug in the first place. She sighed.

The door of the room burst open, causing Mal and Evie to both jump and spin around. Carlos and Jay came in, pulling Doug between them. Ben followed behind and slammed the door behind the group.

"Ben, what-" Mal began.

Ben glanced to the muted TV. "Oh, good, so you've heard." He turned to Doug. "Talk. Now. I know it was you."

Carlos and Jay released Doug, and Doug straightened his jacket before speaking. "It was."

Ben growled. "Why? Don't you realize what you've done?"

"I thought I was doing what was best. Hearing Mal cry last night..."

Everyone's attention turned to Mal, and her blood turned to ice. She had forgotten that Doug had been present the previous night when she had cried about her and Ben's romance being over because they were related.

"She said you wanted to continue dating even though you knew you were twins. And she was starting to think it wasn't a bad idea. I couldn't let that happen."

"What?!" Ben blinked at Mal and quickly turned his anger on Doug again. "That wasn't your choice to make. That is between me and Mal."

"No, it's not!" Doug protested. He set his jaw and inhaled deeply before continuing. "You are king now, Ben. Your decisions affect everyone, and that's what I started thinking. If you continued dating Mal, even secretly, you would eventually be expected to take a wife and produce heirs. You're twins. Surely, you can see where I'm going with this."

"The old royal families used to marry their cousins all the time."

"Cousins, Ben, cousins. Even that was wrong. The descendants were prone to illnesses and hereditary diseases. The line grew weak, and that's why they died out. You want to purposely kill your line faster by having a child with your sister?" Doug took a step forward, and Ben glared at him. "Listen," Doug said, raising his hands in defense. "It's best that you two stay apart, romantically, at least. You're playing with the fate of a whole kingdom. And! Listen, don't say anything. The people also deserved to know they had been lied to."

"My parents are no longer in charge, so why does that matter?" Ben asked.

"Because by not revealing the truth, you're continuing to lie to the people. You're starting your reign out in a lie."

"Well, thanks to you, it looks like I'm going to have an extremely short reign anyhow, but gee, at least you got the truth out there," Ben snarled.

"You don't know that. These people know you. They're just in a panic right now. Calm their fears. Remind them of the good in you and everyone. They accepted Mal, Evie, Carlos, and Jay into society here; why can't they overlook this?"

Ben lunged forward and grabbed Doug's collar. He hoisted him up so they were nose-to-nose. "Because they see it as betrayal. Like they've been played the fool. And how do you think I'm going to convince anyone of anything when I've been battling my magic for days now? You think my father's temper is bad? What about mine when my magic is hardly contained inside me? I have representatives coming from all over the country to see me in just a few hours and I have to appear calm and collected. How do you expect me to do that, huh?"

Doug looked truly terrified as his jacket was beginning to smoke green where Ben's hands were holding him. "Self-control?" he suggested softly.

Ben laughed and released him, causing Doug to stumble backward. But Ben caught his arm and twisted it behind his back. "I'm arresting you," Ben said. "On the grounds of treason against your king and this nation, you're under arrest."


	9. Chapter 9

Over the next few hours, Mal, Evie, Carlos, and Jay sat in silence. Well, for the most part. Evie lay in her bed, trying to hide her tears. After a while, it devolved into quiet sniffles as she watched Jay and Carlos play a videogame on their TV. Mal was thankful for this because it meant they couldn't watch the continued broadcast of the news about Ben. As for Mal, she lay awake on her side, huddled under her covers, thinking. She knew they were all thinking about the same thing. Ben had stormed out, pushing Doug in front of him. It had been rash and in a surge of anger, but surely Ben had thought better of it by now and released Doug. At the same time, Mal understood exactly why Ben had done it. What Doug had done was dangerous and threatening to Ben's rule. Doug could have at least consulted her and Ben about their relationship before telling the whole country. That would have been the reasonable thing to do. But it was too late.

Mal closed her eyes and eventually fell asleep. The bed was much more comfortable than the bathroom floor, and her tense muscles soon gave in to the warm and plush embrace of the mattress.

It felt like only moments had passed when she was being prodded awake again for the second time that day. She grumbled and rubbed her eyes. "What?"

"Mal," said a soft and pleasant female voice.

Mal opened her eyes to look up at Fairy Godmother. She pushed herself up into a sitting position. "What's going on? Has something happened?" she asked, trying to piece together why the headmistress had a reason to be in her room otherwise.

Fairy Godmother shook her head. "No, not yet. The final members of the Council arrived a short while ago. They're in session with Ben, and they've requested your presence as well."

"Me?" Mal's mouth grew dry, and her stomach caved in. What could they want with her? Did they think she had something to do with the timing of this revelation? Were they going to try to punish her too? She looked around and saw that Carlos and Jay were gone. Evie was curled up under her blankets, facing Mal and the headmistress. Outside, the sun was setting. "How long was I asleep? Where's Carlos and Jay?"

"Maybe an hour," Evie said. Her eyes were red and her mascara had run. She must have been truly miserable if she hadn't bothered to fix it. Or maybe she had just started crying again recently. "They went to get food."

"Mal," Fairy Godmother prompted, drawing the girl's attention back to her. "I don't want to push you, but they really were insistent."

Mal sighed and swung her legs over the side of the bed. She bent over, pulled on her boots, and began to lace them. "Have you...talked to Ben?" she asked, though the question could have been directed at the floor since she didn't look up to address Fairy Godmother.

It was the headmistress's turn to sigh. "Yes. I have."

"Did he really..." Evie began. "Did he really arrest Doug?"

Mal had finished lacing her boots and stood by the time Fairy Godmother answered a tense 'yes'.

Evie shut her eyes, beginning to cry again.

"It will be alright, Evie," Fairy Godmother said.

"But I told Doug. I should be arrested too. This is all my fault!" Evie cried.

"No, it's not," Mal said sharply. "Doug could have kept his mouth shut. Just stay here and wait for news. And make sure you eat when Carlos and Jay bring back food. I don't need you starving yourself too."

Evie hiccuped into the edge of her blanket that she had tugged over the lower half of her face. She nodded quickly.

Mal looked back at the headmistress and tried to shove all her nerves down to feet instead of her throat where they were currently trying to escape. "Let's go."

The short drive to the palace with Fairy Godmother was quiet. Neither she nor Mal spoke. The silence was constant even as Mal followed Fairy Godmother inside the palace, up staircases, and down corridors. By the time they stopped at a pair of dark wooden doors at the end of a hallway, Mal was thoroughly lost and was glad the woman had led her to where she was supposed to go. The thought of appearing before this Council was making her nervous enough already without having to find her way there.

"I'll leave you to it then," Fairy Godmother whispered. She gave Mal a sad smile and retreated back down the hallway the way they had come.

Mal turned back to face the double doors. Now that she concentrated and listened, she could hear angry voices coming from the other side, having simply been muffled by the doors. She took a deep breath, pulled open one of the doors, and slipped inside.

The room beyond the doors was not like Mal had imagined at all. When she had been told there were representatives of every species, she hadn't imagined dalmatians sitting on pillows or a bearded merman with a triton sitting in a bathtub full of water that had been wheeled in on a cart. She definitely hadn't thought of fairies crowded around a steaming teacup or a blue genie with the bulk of a bodybuilder. The room was built with a long conference table in the center. Many princes and princesses that Mal recognized from her Remedial Auradon Heroes 101 class were seated in the high-back chairs around the table. The rest of the room was standing room only. Mal guessed that it was rare for the entire Council to show up to a meeting at once or else they would have had a larger room prepared.

Many of the heroes that sat around the table were arguing. They were all talking at once. The dalmatians were barking. Genie was booming. Triton was threatening Shang with his triton. The fairies were trying to avoid the tremors that shook the table whenever someone slammed their fist onto the surface to make a point.

No one had so much as glanced at Mal when she had entered, and she liked it this better that way. She looked to the other end of the table. Just visible under Charming's arm as he made a wild gesture in his shouting match with Genie was Ben. Ben sat in the chair at the head of the table. His elbow was propped up on one of the arms of the chair, and his chin currently rested in his palm. He looked...bored. To his left were his parents, sat to the side as if only there as an afterthought. Belle clutched a tissue in one hand and balanced the box of tissues in her lap. She was quiet. So was Beast. This was shocking to Mal. Shouldn't Beast, the loudest and most outspoken of anyone else in the room, be raving right then about his son's honor and rightful place as king? But, no, he was silent. In fact, he was staring straight ahead as if not seeing or hearing any of what was going on around him. Mal wondered if this was due to Ben's outburst the previous day when Ben had upset Beast by saying he should have just let the Isle garbagemen drown him.

Just as Mal was working on figuring out a path through the Council to reach Ben, he materialized at her side. It was as if the crowd had been water and let him pass freely through them.

"We need to talk," Ben said. He opened the door and led her out into the hall. Without a word, he moved to the next door down the hall and opened it. She followed him inside.

"Ben, what's going on? What's been happening?" Mal asked once he had closed the door behind them. They were now in a sitting room furnished with plush floral patterned furniture.

"What? Oh, that? They always argue, but nothing like this, of course." Ben shrugged a shoulder and leaned against the back of the sofa. He crossed his arms over his chest. "They've been here for maybe half an hour. They started arguing from the moment some of them saw each other outside. Argued all the way up here, took their seats, and just never stopped. I swear, they don't breathe. Apparently, they've been calling each other all day taking sides."

"Aren't you worried?" Mal asked.

"Of course, I am," Ben said. "It feels like they've already removed me. Haven't asked me anything. Haven't really acknowledged me at all. Haven't so much as glanced at me when I tried to call order. I'm losing my temper. That's why I asked Fairy Godmother to get you."

"You...wait, what? I thought the Council sent for me," Mal said.

"That's what I told Fairy Godmother so she was sure to bring you without question. But, no, I'm the one who needs you."

Mal's spine tensed. It felt as if he were about to launch into one of his 'let's forget we're siblings' speeches again. "Ben, I shouldn't be here. Doug's right; we can't be together."

"I know." The response was short, clipped as if Ben was reluctant to admit it.

"Then why did you arrest him?!"

"Because," Ben said and took a step forward, dropping his hands to his sides. "It's treason. Until a court says otherwise, it is treason to make a move against the king. Doug deliberately told to damage my reputation."

"He told so we would be forced to stay apart and so you didn't have to live a lie."

"But he knew it would damage me. He knew what the cost could be. Mal, I don't know what they're going to do," he said, gesturing to the door behind her. "They're calling for all types of punishment. Very few people are defending me or my parents. Doug's smart, wicked smart. You know he thought about what this would do."

"I don't think he ever meant for you to get punished," Mal said. She couldn't believe she was defending Doug when it was his fault for any punishment Ben or his parents received now.

"Maybe not, but that's not the point. He's in a holding cell in the dungeon, and he will stay there until this has blown over and everyone can think clearly again, including him," Ben said with finality. Then he paused, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath in before opening them again. "Look, Mal. I called you here because, like I said, I'm losing my temper. My blood is boiling. I can feel the magic pushing at my fingertips. It feels like it's about to explode out from my body. I need you here in case...something happens. I don't know that anyone else would know how to combat Maleficent's power in me or that they would be brave enough to do so. Just, if something happens, I need you to calm me down and get it under control."

Mal nodded. "I will. I just...Ben." She caught his arm when he moved to pass her. She couldn't go back to the meeting room just yet. She had to say something. This could be her only chance.

He raised an eyebrow, waiting for her to say something.

Mal swallowed and released his arm. "I love you, Ben. But, I...Doug is right." She shook her head. "We can't be together romantically. You need a queen who can produce heirs. And now that people know we're related, even if everything else blows over like you said, we just can't expect people to be ok with this...with us. I think it's better if we're just siblings." There, she had gotten the words out. And they tasted like acid. Already, she could feel fresh hot tears burning in her chest and throat where they were trying to escape her as more sobs.

Ben just stared at her, his jaw suddenly tight. "If you...think that's best. If that's what you want."

"I want to not feel guilty for loving you!" Mal snapped. "I want to have grown up with you as my brother, not come here at sixteen and fallen in love with you. It's all unfair, and none of it is our fault that we have these feelings. People lied to us. People let this develop. But I'm telling myself that my feelings for you will pass. Because they have to. Because we have no choice."

"You always have a choice," Ben said softly. A tear fell from his eye, and Mal had to fight every muscle in her body so she wouldn't wipe it away for him. "I agreed that Doug is probably right, but that doesn't mean we can't go against it and break social rules." He paused. "But if you're sure."

Mal gave a stiff nod. She had made up her mind in the past few hours between Doug's arrest and Fairy Godmother picking her up. It was what was best for both of them. It only hurt so much now because their feelings were so prominent now. Over time, that would change and they could see each other as siblings. At least, that was what Mal had convinced herself had to be the truth. Because if it didn't get better, she wasn't sure how she could live with herself or ever be in the same room as Ben again.

Ben just nodded and looked away from her. "Alright then."

Before Mal could say anything else, Ben swept past her and out the door. She waited a moment before following him, remembering that she had promised to help him keep his magic under control. If anything, she knew she had just made it all the more difficult for him to keep it together.


	10. Chapter 10

When Mal closed the meeting room door behind her, Ben was just reaching his seat at the head of the table again. But this time, he didn't sit. He stood at the edge of the table, his eyes moving between all the arguing parties before yelling, "SILENCE!" It came out as a growl that shook the chandelier overhead. Every single person in the room stopped and stared at him. Ever so slowly, those at the table moved to sit down until every chair was taken. The walls around the table were still standing room only.

Ben placed his hands on the table and leaned forward. "Good, now, we can discuss what you've all come to talk about in an orderly fashion. There will be no more yelling. It will accomplish nothing."

From the door, Mal could tell his eyes flashed green when he presented this order to the listening Council. Those closest to him flinched. Mal instantly regretted having told Ben she had just wanted to be siblings. She should have chosen her moment better than right before he had to address the Council. It was as if he had flipped a switch to channel his sorrow into anger, and it was working too well. He would surely lose control if the debate got heated at all.

"Fine," Charming said from his seat to Ben's immediate left. "First order of business. Why is she here?" He turned to look directly at Mal. Every head turned her way, and she took a step back. "Only Council members and the royal family are allowed."

Ben didn't miss a beat. "I have asked Mal to sit in on the meeting. As you may be well-aware, Charming, we are twins. That makes her part of this royal family. She is not breaking any rules by being here."

Charming clenched his jaw shut but didn't object to the matter of Mal's presence any further. Mal's shoulders relaxed slightly. Ben had a made a valid point, and no one seemed to be objecting now. Everyone was focused back on Ben as if they had instantly forgotten her completely.

Ben studied the faces around the table. "Now, you all called this meeting for a reason, so I think we had better get straight to the point. Sometime early this morning, it was revealed that my biological mother is, in fact, Maleficent."

A murmur ran through the room as if some of the members had come just to get confirmation from the king in person.

Ben held up a hand to quiet them. "I will not deny this. But, I will also say that I had no knowledge of this until my coronation."

"How do we know this? Who's to say you haven't known your whole life and it wasn't all just a plot to have a descendant of the villains in charge here in Auradon?" Triton asked.

"Because," Ben said pointedly. "I would have never dated my own sister willingly. When Mal and I discovered our relation, we promptly ended our relationship."

Several people around the room nodded as if this were proof enough. Mal, on the other hand, felt sick to her stomach. Ben was straight lying now. But she understood what he was doing. He had to calm the panic in the Council and convince them he was the same good king they knew.

"That still doesn't change the fact that you have Maleficent's blood in your veins," Charming argued. "How can we trust you?"

"Discovering Maleficent's relation to me has not magically changed me into a villain," Ben said. "Haven't we all learned recently that blood does not mean so much as our choices do?" He nodded in Mal's direction. "Mal and her friends lived their entire lives on the Isle under the cruel intentions of their parents. But they have chosen good. My relation to Maleficent is simply how I was born. It's my blood, yes, but it is not the path I've chosen."

When Charming opened his mouth to speak again, Mulan quickly interjected, "Ben is right. It is what we do with our lives that matter, not where we come from. Maybe keeping Ben's parentage a secret was wrong, for many reasons, but I assume it was only to protect him from the same backlash he is experiencing now. He can still be a fine king."

Several people made to talk at once, but this time, it was Phillip who won out. "That is true, but you have to look at it from the view of the law. With Maleficent being Ben's mother, he is not technically a royal of Auradon. He was born out of wedlock, making him a bastard child. So, even if we vote to not care about his relation to Maleficent in the sense that we believe he will still make a good king, it does not change the fact that being a son of Beast but not Belle negates his claim to the throne. We have no choice but to remove him from power and transfer rule to another royal family with valid heirs."

"If you believe he will be a good king, then just change the law," Aladdin put in.

Again, several people clamored to speak at once. There were statements thrown at him, such as "Easy for a common street rat to say!" and "Of course, why didn't we think of that? We'll just change the entire law we live by. Honestly!" At the mention of some other nasty names for Aladdin, Jasmine jumped to her feet, snatched up the fairies' teacup, and hurled it at the speaker.

"Everyone, quiet," Ben snapped as the teacup smashed against the wall over Triton's head.

"Well, what about my son?" It was Dopey who spoke. Mal had always thought Dopey was said to be mute and silly, but he looked quite the opposite. He sat in a chair near the center of the table, and his chin barely passed the top of the table. He wore a green tunic and purple beanie that hid the upper half of his massive ears. His keen gaze was fixed solely on Ben.

"What about him?" Charming asked.

"Ben arrested him for treason earlier this morning. It was my son who outed Ben's relation to Maleficent."

There was an outburst of anger about this, and Ben fought to make his voice heard over them all. "It was treason," he said harshly. "Look it up in the law, and you will find I was in the right to have him arrested."

But no one was listening.

"You wanted to hide it!" Triton bellowed. "Hide your relation to Maleficent and sneak in villain kid accomplices right under our noses until you had your own little army and got us surrounded."

"No, that's-" Ben tried to say.

"You would have had us overthrown and instated a Council of villains!" Charming said.

More people were getting to their feet again, pressing closer to Ben. His hands curled into fists on top of the table. Mal quickly realized her mistake in choosing to stay by the door. Her path to Ben was blocked, and his temper was rising.

"I followed the law!" Ben shouted in Charming's face.

"No, you protected yourself! You wanted to punish someone for telling the truth because you didn't like it. That's a dictatorship!"

Ben lunged at Charming, his fists raised. Just as Ben and Charming clashed, the crowd pressed in, surrounding them to separate them, and Mal took her only path to Ben left. She ran forward and launched herself up onto the conference table. She ran its length and dove over the heads of several people. Her body connected with Ben and dragged them both to the floor, successfully separating Ben from Charming.

Ben wrestled free of her grip and stood at the same time that Charming did. The latter's lip was bleeding. He dabbed it with his middle finger. "Do you see what your precious, so-called 'good' king is willing to do to someone who defies him?!" he shouted to the surrounding crowd.

But the crowd was silent, staring at Ben. Charming turned back to face Ben, and his smile of triumph faded.

Mal finally managed to get to her feet. Someone had stepped on her fingers and then the edge of her jacket, delaying her. Instantly, she was met by more than fifty gazes. But they were all staring slightly to her left, directly at Ben.

Ben stood next to her, seething. His hands were clenched into fists at his side. Green fire surrounded his hands. Wisps of matching green smoke had materialized at his temples again, making the same horns there Mal had seen before. His eyes were a bright, neon green that would have glowed in the dark. "Get out of my palace," he hissed to Charming. When no one moved, he looked around at them all and then bellowed, "GET OUT!" The windows on the back wall shattered and blew out.

The Council members sprung into action, all rushing for the double doors at the opposite end of the room. In less than a minute, they were all gone, even the bathtub with Triton in it. Mal stood beside Ben, alone except Belle and Beast, who were the only ones who hadn't moved during the entire meeting. Belle was crying again, wiping her eyes with tissues. Beast looked like he had been sedated as he still stared straight ahead.

"Ben," Mal began and reached out to touch his arm.

Ben shrugged her off and turned away. "I think you should return to campus."

"Ben, I'm sorry. I didn't know what to do," Mal said.

He turned back to her, frowning. "I'm not blaming you. I'm just upset with myself. That just blew any progress I had made with any of them."

"You don't know that. They were just startled. They're scared. They'll see sense. Just give them time. Things will settle."

Ben nodded slowly. "Perhaps."

* * *

But by the morning, things hadn't settled. If anything, they had gotten worse. The instant Mal awoke, Evie directed Mal's attention to the TV where Snow White was giving an update on the situation.

"The Council of Auradon, which met last night with King Ben, held an emergency meeting early this morning before dawn," Snow White explained. She was standing just outside the palace again in this shot. "King Ben was not in session with them. The Council voted to use their power to remove Ben from his position as king, claiming that his being a bastard child of a royal and a villain compromises his claim to the throne. It was then decided that the kingdom's rule will move to the family of Aurora and Phillip by crowning their daughter, Audrey, as queen."

Mal and Evie looked at each other. "They can't be serious," Mal said, to which Evie shrugged a shoulder.

"Her coronation will take place this afternoon," Snow White continued. "In addition, Beast and Belle have been arrested for crimes against the kingdom. The Council claims that keeping Ben's heritage is considered a criminal offense and a conspiracy. The two will be tried in a public trial one month from now. While the Council denies Ben is guilty of any such conspiracy due to his lack of knowledge of his parentage, they say he shows possible mental instability involving his magic he inherited from Maleficent. To monitor him, the Council made it mandatory that Ben be admitted to the psyche ward at the hospital in Auradon City until further notice or until the doctors can verify his mental state. Finally, in other news, Dopey's son, Doug, has been released from prison and cleared of all charges of treason. Back to you, Cindy."


	11. Chapter 11

Mal had only managed to drag herself out of bed, take a quick shower, and pull on clothes when a flurry of hurried knocking erupted on the main door to the bedroom. Evie was the one who answered it, pausing in the act of curling her hair to do so. When the door swung open, Audrey darted inside and shut the door behind her.

"Audrey?" both Evie and Mal asked at the same time.

"Shh, keep your voices down," Audrey said. She glanced toward the windows and quickly strode over to them. She yanked the curtains together, blocking out any sight of the outside campus.

"Audrey, what are you doing here? Isn't your coronation in a few hours?" Evie asked.

"Yes. Reporters have been at the palace all morning," Audrey said. She hovered by the window as if she didn't know what to do now that she had barricaded the room from some unknown foe. "Right after the Council meeting this morning, Mom and Dad came and got me. They're already having people move our stuff into the palace. Just the necessary things at first. It's so surreal."

Mal rolled her eyes. "As if you're complaining. You're going to be queen."

Audrey blinked at her, seemingly confused or dumbfounded; Mal couldn't decide which. "I am complaining! I don't want to be queen! Mom's got me doing fitting for a coronation dress. Dad's been standing there reading Auradon's laws to me as if he's expecting me to start reciting them. The Council has already set up a follow-up meeting for tonight and one every week from now for the next month because they're paranoid and I have no idea what I'm doing. It's madness. I only just escaped while they were fretting over place settings for the banquet tonight."

"You'll deal with it," Mal said flatly. She moved over to where Evie stood finishing her hair and picked up a second hairbrush to begin combing through her damp locks. The blue-haired girl was going to visit Doug shortly. Whether that was to hug him or scold him for telling, Mal didn't know, and she didn't care. The damage had already been done.

"Mal. I...I can't be queen. I was raised to be a princess and eventually a queen in the sense that I'd marry into it and be in charge of parties and luncheons and wardrobes! I...I can't run a country!" Audrey cried, her voice rising several octaves.

Mal looked at Audrey in the mirror. She almost felt sorry for the girl. Except, Audrey was only naming worries about herself. She hadn't even mentioned Ben or his parents at all. "Then who should run the country?"

"I don't know!" Audrey threw her hands up. "Someone much more qualified!"

Mal slammed down the hairbrush, causing both Evie and Audrey to jump. She spun around, her eyes narrowing at Audrey. "I would have thought you would enjoy being queen, Audrey. Isn't your first act going to be sending me, Evie, Jay, and Carlos back to the Isle? You didn't want us here in the first place, and now you've got the perfect chance to get rid of us. So, why complain?"

Audrey opened her mouth and then abruptly closed it. She exhaled heavily, breathing out through her nose. "I'm not going to send you all back. If I've learned anything in the past month, it's that you're not exactly the same as your parents." She paused and continued, "Maybe a little...rough around the edges, but you're not...evil."

Mal blinked, and the tension in her shoulders eased ever so slightly as a spark of relief flitted through her chest. "Oh," was all she got out before Audrey resumed speaking.

"And why do you think I came here of all places? I know, other than Carlos and Jay, you two are probably the most likely ones to be all for a plan to help me."

"Help you?" Mal laughed. But there was no malice. It was actually humor. "Why?"

"Because I don't want to be queen, and you all want Ben to be king again. Don't you?" Audrey searched their faces as if any denial of her statement would crush her. Were they really the best option she had for help?

"Of course, we do," Mal said. "But the Council basically labeled him as a nutcase this morning. He's in a psyche ward. And if you hadn't barged in, I'd already be there talking to him. His magic is unstable because Beast tortured him until his magic went dormant. Now, it's exploding out whenever his emotions are high. He's not crazy, he's stressed."

"His father...tortured him?" Audrey asked, her eyes wide.

Mal cursed herself mentally for running her mouth. That family had enough problems to worry about without Beast also being accused of abusing his son. It was the truth, but Mal thought making that additional fact public would just push the country into further chaos. She sighed and shook her head. "Look, it doesn't matter. Anyways, what can we do? The Council has Beast and Belle in jail to go to trial, and Ben apparently doesn't have a claim to the throne anymore because of Maleficent being his mother."

"Actually." Audrey paused, glancing between them. In the pause, they heard footsteps approaching their door. Then a knock. Audrey looked over her shoulder and turned back to Evie and Mal, panic in her eyes. Then she started talking at super speed, her voice low. "I have to go. But, that's not true. I don't think Dad paid attention when he read the laws to me. He just sort of went on autopilot and kept reading them in a monotone, and-"

"Audrey. Audrey, sweetheart, are you in there?" It was Aurora just outside their door.

Audrey edged toward the door. "-the law says that the Council can only replace the ruling monarch if he or she shows direct and indisputable corrupt actions or if they are proven to not be of complete royal birth. But, there's a catch in that case, and the Council can only replace them if there's a suitable heir from the present family to take their place, so like if Ben had a brother or sister that was biologically both Beast and Belle's child; that would be the only way to replace him. Otherwise, changing royal families is out of the question unless the whole line dies out. Ben's not corrupt. He has no siblings that are full-blooded royals. And he's not dead. The Council's wrong."

"Audrey!" The doorknob twisted.

Audrey turned and raced out the door before her mother could enter the room.

Mal stared at the door that Audrey had just left through. She slowly turned to Evie. "Is she...was that...whoa, is she saying there's a loophole in the law?"

"More like the Council twisted the law or left out a crucial part of it so that they got to kick Ben out of the palace like they wanted," Evie said. She dropped her final curl into place. "Doug would know."

Mal nodded as if in a daze. "Ask him. Kill him first for me for being a jerk and starting this mess. But then, ask him, would you?"

Evie nodded. "Going to go see Ben?"

Mal nodded. "If he hasn't blown the hospital apart by now or turned into a dragon."

Evie laughed, but Mal didn't. Her mother's magic was no laughing matter. It was powerful and Mal had almost been overwhelmed by it herself multiple times. Now that Ben's magic had had time to grow in secret, Mal would be lucky if she could teach him any type of control. If she could do that and prove to the Council that he could control the magic, and if Audrey was right about the law...maybe there was still hope.


	12. Chapter 12

"I'm not contagious, you know," Ben said.

Mal frowned at Ben. She stood in the doorway to his private room in the Auradon Hospital psyche ward. She hadn't crossed the threshold yet. She needed a moment to process what she was seeing. "I know."

The guard that stood in the hallway next to the door grunted. "Five minutes."

Mal slid into the room and shut the door quietly behind her. Not that she could have shut it any other way. The room was padded from wall to wall and from floor to ceiling. When she stepped on the floor, she sank an inch into what felt like a foam pillow. "This is insane," she said softly.

Ben raised an eyebrow. "Interesting choice of words. They would say the same." He jerked his chin toward the large window that made up one section of a wall so the guard outside could check in on him occasionally.

Mal winced. "Sorry. But, I mean...a straightjacket? A padded room? Constant guard at the door?"

"Yup." Ben shifted where he sat on the floor in the center of the room. A beige straightjacket hugged him tightly, keeping him from moving his arms.

Mal lowered herself to the floor so they were sitting right in front of each other. "We're going to get you out of here."

"You and what army, Mal?" Ben asked. His words weren't sharp; he just sounded tired, broken.

"Me, Audrey-"

Ben laughed. "So, the world's ending, you mean?"

Mal narrowed her eyes. "I'm willing to work with anyone who's willing to get you back where you belong."

"And where is that? They're right. I'm not full-blooded royalty, Mal. I shouldn't be ruling."

"That's not true." Keeping in mind that she only had a few minutes before the guard would come get her, Mal quickly explained the law that Audrey had told her about just thirty minutes previous.

Ben seemed almost bored from this news, and his lack of reaction or change in demeanor made Mal want to smack him across the face just to check that they hadn't injected him with a sedative too. But she refrained and simply clenched her hands into fists on top of her legs. "Well?" she snapped when he hadn't said anything for ten seconds.

"The Council won't admit they're wrong," Ben said. "They'll deny everything. You want to change their minds? Then you have to catch them off guard in public. Make the people agree that they're in the wrong. It will pressure them. But good luck with that; they haven't met in public since they made the Council."

Mal blew out a heavy breath. "I'm trying to help. I'm trying to be positive."

"And I'm being realistic," Ben said, his eyes finally focusing on hers. "My parents are in jail. I'm in a psyche ward. I can't control my magic at all when my emotions flare up."

"You can change that. With practice. Maybe you can practice simple stuff in here," Mal suggested. She knew it was risky, but perhaps the only way they would let him go quickly was if he demonstrated control over his magic.

Ben shook his head. "There's an anti-magic barrier around this room."

Mal frowned. "They have to take you out sometimes."

"Maybe. I've only been here a few hours. I'm trying to learn the patterns. They'll take me across the hall for bathroom breaks."

Mal nodded, thinking. "It's not the best, but you could try simple control spells in there. Think of something that makes you angry, but channel the emotion. Don't let it consume you. Reign it in until you can bend it to your will."

Ben slowly nodded just as the door behind Mal opened. She stood and went to join the guard in the hallway, knowing that her allotted time with her brother was up.

* * *

Mal waited for Doug to finish reading through the law Audrey had quoted that morning for the third time. Once they had all heard it aloud multiple times and verified that the Council really shouldn't have had the authority to remove Ben from the throne, Mal spoke. "But, like Ben said, we can't just bring it up in a meeting."

"No, we need them together in public," Doug said, closing the book of Auradon Law and seating himself on Evie's bed.

"Can't Audrey just call a meeting and have it outside? Why are these meetings so secretive?" Jay asked.

"Probably to hide stuff like this that they've been getting away with for years," Mal suggested.

"They get away with less than you think. Beast kept them in line, but I suppose they see Ben as young and gullible and as a chance to push their authority," Doug countered.

Mal crossed her arms over her chest and looked to Evie and Carlos and then to Audrey. None of them had spoken since they had gathered twenty minutes ago. Audrey had left her coronation banquet early to meet them in the dorm. "Any ideas?"

Audrey worried her bottom lip between her teeth, her arms crossed low over her abdomen. "They're a scary bunch. So intimidating. Ben's right. I mean, they definitely won't listen to me. It has to be in public. But how can we do that? If their error needs to be made known, it almost has to be something televised or so popular that everyone will hear about it. And we have to get them all to attend."

"I know it's a long way away and it's risky, but..." Doug looked around at them all. "We could do it at Beast and Belle's trial."

"That's a month away," Mal snapped. "You want to leave them in prison and leave Ben in the nuthouse for a month?!"

"I know it's not ideal! But...listen, the whole Council will attend that. It's a scandal, and they're the ones that called for the trial in the first place. And every citizen in the country will be wanting to know what happens there. If you want to bring up this law and show Auradon that what the Council did was wrong in hopes to get Ben back on the throne, this is the best chance we've got."


	13. Chapter 13

Mal looked around the courtroom, a horrible knot of nerves in her stomach. The courtroom was packed. Every seat on both sides of the central aisle had been filled. News reporters stood along the back wall, their microphones and cameras at the ready for what Mal and many other Auradon citizens considered to be the scandal and trial of the century.

It was the day of Beast and Belle's trial. The past month had passed in a daze for Mal. She had spent many days after school visiting Ben and trying to keep his spirits up. However, Ben was often in a foul mood. A constant straightjacket and padded room would do that to a person. It was basically making him worse, according to the doctors. And Mal honestly had no hope that Ben would be released until after his parents' trial. The Council was likely making sure of that.

The Council, Mal noticed, had taken up position in the entire first two rows on the opposite side of the courtroom. Charming was at the end of the first row so that he sat on the central aisle. For some reason that Mal couldn't explain, seeing that Charming had positioned himself so close to the action of the courtroom made Mal nervous.

Of course, some would argue that Mal wasn't supposed to be there at all. Most Auradon students had been banned from attending simply because the courtroom wouldn't fit both them and their parents. Audrey, as queen, was the only student who was rightfully supposed to attend. However, Audrey had found a way to get Mal, Evie, and Doug into the courtroom. Mal, Audrey had argued to the judge, had a right to witness her biological father's trial. She also made a point that Mal should be allowed to bring two people along as moral support. Evie had been an easy choice, but Mal hadn't wanted to choose between Jay and Carlos, so she let Evie bring Doug. Part of Mal had to admit this was for evil purposes. Since Doug had exposed the royal family's secret, he should be forced to see it through to its end. Mal would make him sit and watch the consequences of his decision.

Mal leaned across Doug to whisper to Evie. "Are Carlos and Jay watching? Is it on yet?"

Evie nodded. "Jay just texted me. They've got on the news. They're watching it on the flat screen in the study room with everybody else in the dorms."

Mal nodded and settled back in her seat. The three of them were sandwiched in the middle of a row on the lefthand side of the aisle. Audrey sat in the front row on their side, and Mal could see her fiddling with the file folder in her lap from here. Their plan was about to begin.

A few minutes later, the door beside the judge's platform opened, and a man in black robes walked out and took his seat. Mal pulled her eyes away from where she had been scanning the jury. None of the twelve jury members belonged to the Council. They were common Auradon citizens. This sent a shiver of hope through Mal. Maybe it would be a fair trial after all. Maybe the punishment wouldn't be so bad if that were the case.

The judge tapped his gavel, and the chatter in the courtroom dissipated. "I call the trial of King Beast and Queen Belle to order. Bring the accused forward."

The doors at the back of the courtroom opened, and a group of guards led the way down the aisle. Sandwiched between the guard escort were Beast and Belle. Neither one of them was handcuffed, but both look disheveled. Belle's hair was stringy and unwashed. Bags drooped under her eyes as if she hadn't slept in weeks. Beast looked much thinner, his royal blue blazer hanging off one shoulder.

They looked...pitiful.

They were led through a small swinging gate to the courtroom floor and seated in chairs facing the judge. A man in a black suit that Mal hadn't noticed walk in behind the guards now took a seat at a table beside the two disgraced royals. He began sorting through his briefcase and taking out papers.

"That's Georges Hautecourt's grandson," Doug whispered.

"Who?" Mal and Evie asked at the same time.

"Georges Hautecourt was Madame Adelaide Bonfamille's lawyer. She owned Duchess and her kittens. You know...the aristocats? It's a family business to practice law," Doug explained. "That's the grandson. He's the best in Auradon."

Mal again felt a spark of hope light in her chest at Doug's words. "Good."

"I hereby address this court," the judge said, "by first reading the accusations of King Beast. King Beast is accused of deliberately concealing the truth of King Ben's biological mother and passing him off as the son of himself and Belle. The truth stands that Maleficent is said to be the true biological mother of King Ben. Beast hid this fact, which is an issue of national security, and..."

The rest of the judge's words blurred together in Mal's mind. He called it a 'conspiracy against Auradon.' He read that Beast had tortured his son in order to conceal the truth of his magic. Belle was considered a willing accessory, going along with the lie and allowing the torture of her son.

"How do they know about Beast torturing Ben, Doug?" Mal hissed softly to Doug.

Doug shook his head. "I didn't tell them."

"Before we hear testimonies," the judge said, setting aside his list of accusations. "Queen Audrey has requested the floor for a moment."

Mal's attention turned back to Audrey as she moved to stand. She slid through the waist-high gate and into the center of the room.

Audrey held a file tightly in her hands. "I have a copy of Auradon's Law here," she said. "The sections I've brought pertain to the royal family and power shifts." She turned to the Council and pulled out her stack of papers. "What I'm about to read clarifies that King Ben should not have been removed from power by the Council. They did not consider him corrupt, and-"

Charming stood quickly. "Your Honor," he said to the judge. "Does this have anything to do with this trial? This is about Beast and Belle, not Ben."

"I-" Audrey started.

"Queen Audrey," the judge said. "Does any of what you have to say pertain to this trial? If this is about King Ben, you may take it up with the Council in private."

"But, I-" Audrey paused and swallowed. Mal could see her hands shaking from where she sat. "No," she admitted.

The judge made Audrey sit back down. Bile rose in the back of Mal's throat. They had lost their chance at a public confrontation of the Council. They had wasted a month leading up to this day, going over Audrey's speech repeatedly until practically all seven of them could recite it. And it was all for nothing.

"Bring in the first witness," the judge called.

Mal twisted in her seat to see Fairy Godmother walk in through the courtroom doors. The woman strode up the aisle and took the witness seat beside the judge, facing the jury.

Mal didn't want to believe it. But as soon as they began asking the woman questions, Mal knew it was true. Fairy Godmother had been the one who told about Ben's torture. Mal's guess was that she had tried to use it as a bargaining chip to keep herself out of jail since she had known about Ben's true parentage.

"And you claim King Beast threatened you that if you spoke of Ben's true mother to anyone, you would be executed?" the judge asked.

"Yes." That must have been the real reason Fairy Godmother wasn't facing any charges. If Beast had threatened her with execution, she had had no choice but to stay silent.

"This doesn't look good," Doug muttered.

The second witness, Mal was surprised to discover, was Ben. Two guards led him up to the witness stand, still in his straightjacket. Fairy Godmother had left, and they quickly swore Ben in to tell the truth as they had done previously with the headmistress.

Ben's questioning was pretty straightforward. Did he know about Maleficent being his true mother? Did Beast really torture him? How did Beast torture him? Did Belle ever try to intervene with such practices?

He answered every question in a monotone. His gaze never left the back wall of the courtroom and never wavered to even glance at his parents. How could he look at them? He was sentencing them to their fates all by telling the truth.

"Thank you, Ben," the judge said.

As he was being led back to the courtroom gate, he twisted around to address the judge. "May I stay? I'm their son. I'd like to hear the verdict."

The judge allowed it, and Ben was moved to the back of the courtroom, the two guards stationed on either side of him.

Mal wiped her palms on her pants. She hadn't even realized she had been sweating until Ben was off the podium and she could breathe a little easier.

The trial continued with Mr. Hautecourt defending Beast and Belle. Mal had had hope for him to pull the trial through in their favor. But Mal quickly realized that there simply was no case to make to counter the damaging evidence and testimonies against Beast and Belle. They had willingly lied to their people. And Belle had done nothing to stop Beast from torturing Ben when they thought Ben's magic would give away the lie. They were cornered.

"The jury will deliberate," the judge called to the courtroom. "We will have a recess until then."

* * *

The recess stretched into four hours. Mal spent most of it pacing in the hall outside the courtroom. Many people went to go get food after the first hour, including Doug. He brought back sandwiches for the three of them to share. They didn't talk much either. Speculating about why the jury was taking so long just made Mal's nerves worse. She knew what was happening. Beast and Belle were guilty for sure in the jury's eyes. What was taking so long, she assumed, was deciding on the appropriate punishment for them.

By the time the court was called back into session, the ham and swiss sandwich was not sitting well in Mal's stomach. As the jury filed back in to take their seats, she twisted around to see where Ben was. He was back at his allotted station by the door. During the recess, they hadn't been able to find him and had finally been informed that he was in a private isolation room and wasn't allowed to see anyone. So, she had no idea what could be going through Ben's mind right then.

The judge called the court to order and prompted the speaker for the jury to stand and deliver the sentence.

A large man with broad shoulders stood and unfolded a piece of paper to read from. "The jury would first like to address the issue of King Beast. We find him guilty on all charges, including conspiracy against the state, destruction of national security, and child abuse. In the case of Queen Belle, we find her equally guilty for willing association and accessory to those same crimes. As punishment for their crimes, we sentence them both to death."

The courtroom exploded with chatter. Agreeing or disagreeing chatter, Mal couldn't tell.

She looked at Doug. His eyes were wide with horror. "Can they do that?" she asked. "Why not jail? Why not send them to the Isle of the Lost?"

"Death is kinder compared to what the villains on the Isle would do to them," Doug pointed out. He looked dazed, his eyes still fixed straight ahead. He shook his head. "Hysteria causes people to do crazy things, Mal. Look at the Salem witch trials or the French Revolution. It was madness. Executions everywhere because people were scared. If the king can turn against the virtues the country swears by...well...it's chaos."

Mal shook her head. "I don't believe this." She looked to Beast and Belle, but all she could see were the backs of their heads from where they sat facing the judge.

"ORDER!" The judge roared, slamming his gavel down several times.

The courtroom began to quiet. But then someone screamed and pointed to the back doors.

Mal spun in her seat. "Ben," she whispered. "No."

The guards on either side of Ben had backed away. Green fire spun around Ben in a vortex, eating away at the straightjacket that held him. He stretched and broke free of the confining and now charred fabric. In an instant, the fire had moved to his temples. When it cleared, massive black horns had solidified there.

Ben clenched his hands into fists and roared exactly like Mal knew Maleficent did before turning into a full dragon. She didn't have long. She had to stop him.


	14. Chapter 14

Mal was instantly on her feet. The problem was so was everyone else. The crowd ran away from Ben, pushing Mal back toward the jury stand in their effort to get as far from him as possible. Ben was standing by the only accessible exit door. The judge's door was not accessible from this direction unless one climbed over the large barrier separating the judge's platform from the floor.

"Do you see what he's become?!" Charming shouted. "Unstable! Twisted!" He barely ducked in time as a jet of green flames shot over his head. Behind him, a section of the wall above the jury blasted away.

Mal pushed through the crowd, elbowing some people in her effort to reach Ben. She had to calm him down. He was just upset. Anyone would be upset if they were told both their parents would be put to death.

Beast and Belle had been pulled out of their seats and pushed back toward the judge's stand. Both looked horrified at Ben's appearance.

And it was getting worse. Ben's hands contorted, elongating and sprouting sharp black claws in place of his fingernails. His face stretched into a snout. A tail grew and swished dangerously behind him. In just a matter of moments, a full grown purple and black dragon stood in Ben's place. It roared, shooting flames up at the ceiling.

Mal shoved the people in front of her out of the way. But the crowd around her was still thick, and now that Ben had fully transformed into a mirror image of Maleficent, they were pressing back against her even harder.

"Ben!" she called, trying to get his attention. She needed to distract him.

"Guards, seize him!" Charming yelled.

The guards that had escorted Beast and Belle and then Ben into the courtroom looked wary. There was hesitation; then they charged at the dragon.

Mal could see what was going to happen before they even reached him. The guards carried no weapons with them. Auradon was a peaceful nation, so they had never needed weapons. And now, that was their downfall. They would not be able to lay a hand on a dragon.

As soon as the guards broke free of the crowd to advance on Ben, the dragon lowered its head and blew a stream of fire at them. By simply moving its head, it caught all eight guards in the flames. When the dragon stopped breathing fire, the guards were on fire, writhing on the floor as balls of flames and screaming. Some people rushed forward to try to put out the flames, but the dragon stomped, and the crowd retreated, leaving the guards to scream in pain and fire on the floor.

Mal growled. Ben would not do that. The magic they had received from their mother was inherently evil. Losing control of said magic could let the magic consume you. Ben was not in control of his actions.

This time, when Mal attempted to shove people out of the way, a burst of invisible power left her. The people in front of her stumbled aside, some even falling to the floor. She rushed forward, stepping over those fallen and moving to stand in front of Ben.

"Ben!" Mal called to the dragon. "BEN! STOP! This isn't you! Don't let the magic control you!"

The dragon swiveled its head to look at her and exhaled green smoke from its nose.

"Ben, I know you can hear me," Mal said. "Calm down. Reign it in like I told you. Please. Try."

The dragon concentrated on her for a few moments. Then it blinked, and its form dissolved.

Mal rushed forward as Ben, back in human form, collapsed to the floor. She sat beside him and pulled him into her lap. He was unconscious but human, and that was all Mal had wanted. The magic had taken too much out of him.

The crowd now surged forward to put out the flames on the guards. But some of them had already stopped moving, consumed by the flames.

"Do you see?!" Charming called above the chatter, and many people turned to listen to him. "He is already giving in to Maleficent's power! He is corrupt. He is following Maleficent's path of destruction and will be the ruin of this nation."

Many people nodded their agreement.

"Arrest him! We won't be safe until his own trial and punishment!" Charming said.

"What? No!" Mal protested. But Charming and some of the other princes, including Eric and Phillip, moved forward to pull Ben from her grasp. She jumped to her feet. "You can't! He couldn't help it! You had just sentence his parents to death. He was upset!"

"No excuse!" Charming hissed in her face. "He's killed three guards alone. Who knows if the others will make it."

Mal shook her head, looking over Charming's shoulder to see the damage. Half of the wall above the jury had been blasted away. The ceiling was scorched. Three guards lay limp and scorched on the floor. The other five were being tended to by various crowd members. They were in rough condition, and the sight of their charred skin and faces nearly made Mal vomit.

"So, he'll have a trial," Charming said, drawing her attention back to him. "And we'll just see what happens."

* * *

"Why is Charming so hell-bent on destroying Ben?" Jay asked later that afternoon once Mal, Evie, Doug, and Audrey had returned to the dorm and met up with Carlos and Jay again.

Audrey sighed, dropping down onto Mal's bed with her slice of pizza. "Because he wanted Chad to be crowned instead of me," she said. "But the Council voted over him for my family to take power instead."

"So, what's that got to do with Ben now?" Mal asked. She picked at one of the pepperoni slices on her pizza and popped it into her mouth. She wasn't particularly hungry, but the others had insisted that she eat something. Her gaze kept shifting to the news, which they had muted on the TV. There had been no updates on Ben yet; it was just replays of the dragon fiasco that morning.

"Because I will need to marry a prince eventually, and even though Ben has been removed from power, I can still choose him as my betrothed," Audrey explained. "Charming is scared that I'll do exactly that, so he wants Ben out of the way while the panic is still fresh with the people of Auradon. If he does that, he thinks Chad will be the likely pick. And honestly, he'll petition my parents for an arranged marriage between me and Chad."

"How do you know all of that?" Doug asked.

"I overheard him and my parents talking in the parlor last night. I meant to tell you all, but I didn't see you guys before the trial started," Audrey said. She sighed. "So, he's still trying to weasel Chad into power."

"And he thinks the way to assure that is to get rid of Ben for good," Mal said. She frowned.

"Guys, look!" Carlos, who had ben put in charge of watching the TV for updates, suddenly grabbed the remote and turned up the volume.

Snow White was delivering a news update. "King Ben's trial has been set to one week from today. He is accused of using dark magic to brutally murder three guards at his parents' trial. Five other guards arrived at the Auradon Hospital today with third-degree burns to most of their bodies. Three of those five have since died, bringing the death toll to six. The remaining two are in critical condition."

Mal felt tears spring to her eyes and bile rise in her throat. She pushed her plate away, no longer hungry.

* * *

The following week passed in a blur. Mal could no longer feign focus on any of her schoolwork. She tried to visit Ben in his holding cell, but all visitors were banned.

When the day for the trial arrived, Audrey and Mal sat together. None of the other students were allowed to attend.

Ben's trial was much shorter than that of his parents'. The evidence for his use of dark magic and the murder of all eight guards (the final two had perished that week) was simply too great. The same lawyer that had represented Beast and Belle also stood for Ben. He presented the case that since Ben's magic had been dormant and unknown to him until recently, he hadn't been in control of himself when he turned into a dragon.

But this didn't seem to help at all. Uncontrollable magic or not, the jury still saw Ben as a threat on the same level as Maleficent. Even though his twelve jury members were completely different from those at his parents' trial, they came to the same conclusion: Ben had to die.

* * *

Mal stomped into her and Evie's room, just returning from Ben's trial and sentencing.

Doug and Evie were seated on the couch, watching the news.

Mal snatched up the remote and turned off the TV. "So. You've heard."

Evie slowly nodded. "Yes. We heard about the trial."

Mal shook the remote at them in frustration. "You both did this!" she cried, finally feeling the emotion explode out of her. She had been holding it in for far too long. She would have to witness both her biological father and brother die along with Belle, who had simply wanted a son and for that child to live a peaceful life. Yes, she blamed Evie for telling Doug. She had trusted Evie with her life, and Evie had told Doug. And Doug should have thought out the consequences better. But it was all too late.

"I'm sorry, Mal." Now Evie was crying, her tears creating valleys in her makeup.

"I'm sorry too, Mal," Doug said softly.

Mal screamed and threw the remote over their heads. It crashed against the opposite wall. "I DON'T CARE HOW SORRY YOU ARE!" She curled her hands into fists. "If either of you want to make up for even a shred of what you've done, you will do what I ask of you. Ben, Beast, and Belle are being executed in a week. One week. Do not make me witness the beheading of any of them, especially Ben."

Both of them nodded, their eyes wide.

"Anything," Evie said. "We'll do anything, Mal. What is it?"

Mal looked between both of them. "You will find my mother and bring her to the city. You have one week."


	15. Chapter 15

Mal spent the next week away from school. Evie and Doug had done as she had asked and disappeared in search of Maleficent. And it seemed as though Fairy Godmother didn't care about their consistent absences, seeing as she hadn't come to Mal's room demanding an explanation yet. Of course, Mal wondered if the woman was simply steering clear of her to avoid getting her head blasted off. Mal realized that Fairy Godmother had had no choice but to participate in Beast and Belle's trial, but that didn't mean Mal forgave her for her part in sentencing the former king and queen. If there was anything Mal truly retained from her time on the Isle of the Lost, it was her ability to hold grudges, especially when a wicked fire of panic and frustration had been brewing in her chest since Ben's sentencing.

She had passed the week waiting for any word from Evie and Doug in the only way she knew how - practicing her magic. If her plan with Maleficent didn't work out, she knew she couldn't let Ben die. She would find a way to rescue him at the last moment if necessary. They would start over somewhere far away, somehow. But, this was a dim hope and definitely Plan B. Her magic became the most unpredictable when she was upset, and with the royal family's impending execution, she had been anything but calm.

When she hadn't been failing with her magic, she had been visiting Ben daily in prison. The Council had had him relocated from the psyche ward to the prison just a few hours after his sentencing. She spent her allotted twenty minute visits with him going over her plan in hushed tones. If anyone had been listening in on their conversations, they likely hadn't intervened because it was so farfetched. Yet, Ben had agreed that, given the chance, he would carry out Mal's plan in the hopes of surviving his execution.

But, now with the execution scheduled for noon the next day, Mal was losing hope that Doug and Evie would come through. If they hadn't found Maleficent by now...

"Back again?" the guard grumbled at her.

"Yes," Mal replied curtly. She didn't see what this guy's deal was. All week, he had treated her like a criminal - watching her more closely than a security camera would. She was visiting Ben, not robbing a bank.

Maybe it was that he believed she should be in prison as well. It would make one big happy reunion to execute both of Maleficent's only offspring in one go. Maybe the Council was even planning to pin something on her as soon as they got the royal family out of the way. After all, it had to be odd having so-called heroes in jail awaiting their deaths while four villain children roamed free. Mal doubted she and her friends would be safe for long after tomorrow.

However, every time Mal thought about the executions, she found herself agreeing with two of them more and more. Beast and Belle had betrayed their people and their son on multiple levels. They had left her to rot on the Isle while they rescued Ben. Yet, some rescue it had been when Ben had ended up being abused mercilessly anyway. Death was kinder than they deserved. If they had been banished to the Isle, the villains they had imprisoned there would have ripped them apart limb-by-limb.

No, Mal realized, she had to focus. The more time she spent growing enraged toward Beast and Belle was simply time she was wasting.

The guard opened the door for her, and she slipped past him. Like every day before, she found herself in a familiar corridor of cells, bars blocking her in on both sides. It made her feel like a prisoner herself.

Taking a breath, Mal lifted her head high and began down the hall of inmates. Her eyes were trained directly on the door at the end of the hall, which would lead to another hall where security was tighter. Ben had to be kept in a special magic-proof cell to ensure continued safety and containment. That way, Ben couldn't just turn into a dragon, bust down a wall, and fly away.

However, Mal wasn't concerned about her visit with Ben. No, the hardest part was the journey down this corridor. The last cell on the left was Beast and Belle's cell. Every day this week, Mal had walked by them. Every day, Beast had tried to talk to her. And every day, she had kept walking.

"Mal, please," Beast said as soon as she was in view of his cell. He stood at the bars, gripping them so tightly that his knuckles bleached a sickly white color.

Mal kept her gaze forward. Risking a glance would be an opportunity for her to give in to emotion. Her emotions surrounding her biological father were a perfect blend of anger and sorrow that had reached a compromise to settle on a general loathing for the former king. He did not deserve her attention, especially not her pity or forgiveness if he even wanted either.

She moved to open the door to Ben's hallway, her shoulder just a few feet from Beast's bars as she pushed on the door.

"Mal, you owe it to me to listen!" Beast suddenly barked.

Mal halted and let the door in front of her close again. Beast had obviously drawn on the rest of his strength to shout at her. He was desperate, seeing as he only had less than a day to live. She turned to face his cage. "I owe it to you?" Her voice was slow, but sharp. Her hands curled into fists at her sides.

"Mal." Beast seemed to deflate now as he clung to the bars for support. Mal guessed that all his energy had been depleted by his outburst. Under his elbow, Mal could just see Belle lying on a cot in the back corner of the cell, her body curled into a tight ball of despair. "Please. Let me explain."

"Explain what?" Mal snarled. "You have nothing to say that will make me think differently of you."

"Then let me apologize. You're right." Beast uncurled his fingers from the bars and dropped his hands to his sides. "There's nothing I can say that will excuse my behavior toward you or Ben these past sixteen years. I just did what I thought was best for Auradon."

"Don't try to justify your actions!" Mal snapped. "You did what was best for you. Leaving me to suffer on the Isle when all I had in common with my mother at the time were my eyes. Torturing Ben to contain his magic. You lived in fear, and you will die like the coward you are."

Beast flinched as if she'd shot a bolt of lightning at him. "I regret what I did, Mal. I can't do anything to change it."

"Yeah, well, you had sixteen years to change it. You chose to bury your secrets. The only reason it's all out now was because my mother forced it out of you at the coronation. You would have happily spent your whole life lying where Ben and I were concerned if it had been up to you."

Beast looked like he wanted to retort, but Mal continued. "Tomorrow, I will do what I can to save Ben. But, I will do nothing for you. I will be happy when your head rolls." She stomped away, throwing the door to Ben's corridor open in front of her.

Dark thoughts and adrenaline rushed through her, filling her with roaring hatred for the man she could have called Dad if he had acted differently in the past sixteen years. But he hadn't, and she wasn't one for forgiveness when Beast hadn't seemed truly sorry at all. He was still making excuses for his behavior. He had dug himself a deeper hole with every passing year of his lies. It was time he was buried in it. Mal only aimed to save the innocent at the execution. That did not include Beast or Belle; their sentences were just. It was only Ben she wanted to save.


	16. Chapter 16

Mal felt as if she were about to throw up. It wasn't the heat, though it was far too warm to be comfortable. And it wasn't the omelet Lonnie had made her scarf down when she woke up with nightmares a few hours ago, though the red peppers in it were starting to give Mal heartburn.

No, the bile creeping up her throat was the result of panic. Any delusions Mal might have had about successfully using her magic to rescue Ben were gone. The outdoor amphitheater where the royal executions were to take place had been placed under a shimmering magical dome. This dome prevented any magic from being used in the area it contained and was impenetrable by magic from the outside. Mal, having overheard this information on her way through the crowd to the amphitheater, had already tested this. Trying to remain discrete, Mal had attempted from both outside and inside the glittering dome to create a hole just the size of her fingertip. Nothing had worked. Although people could walk through the barrier at will, nothing could destroy it. She would not be able to use magic to save Ben.

The amphitheater was full. Every seat had been taken, and some people stood on the fringes or in the aisles. From a quick survey of faces, Mal guessed most, if not all, of her classmates had elected not to come to the execution. She knew for a fact that Carlos, Jay, Evie, Doug, and Audrey were not among those in attendance. She still hadn't received word from Evie and Doug. And, in half an hour, it would simply be too late.

The only option Mal saw was to rush up on the stage when Ben was brought out for his beheading and fight their way out. But with no magic and so many people and guards, this was impossible. She would be arrested before she made it ten feet.

What it boiled down to was the simple fact that Mal was officially powerless to save Ben unless a miracle happened. And, without any hope for one, she remained in her seat in the third row, stared straight ahead, and prepared to witness the death of the former royal family.

The man sitting to her left shifted uncomfortably when the town clock struck noon, the scheduled time for the executions. His reaction didn't surprise Mal; actually, it infuriated her. Many of the people she had seen on her way in had looked scared or sad. It was as if many of them opposed the idea of these executions but were too afraid to speak up. If there had been enough backlash to the sentencing, perhaps it could have been overturned. Of course, Mal doubted this, but it was still annoying that no one had even tried. With their silence, the citizens were doubly sentencing the royals to death.

As for the Council, Mal couldn't tell if they felt remorseful or not since they were all seated two rows ahead of her. All she could see were the backs of their heads.

But, a moment later, Mal wasn't concerned with the Council or the man seated to her left. She was much too focused on Ben.

A group of ten guards led Ben and his parents up on stage from the backstage area. All three royals were handcuffed with their hands behind their backs. A man in periwinkle robes and a matching mask that concealed most of his face except his eyes followed behind the somber group. He carried a two-foo tall tree stump under one arm and a woven basket in the other.

Mal swallowed with some difficulty as the man placed the items center stage. The basket sat directly in front of the stump, obviously designed to catch the severed heads of the executed. How medieval of Auradon to handle their executions in such a manner. But, Mal supposed, Auradon did love its traditions, even if that included something as ghastly as this. Maybe they thought making the executioner wear the same shade of bluish-purple as Fairy Godmother made the whole spectacle easier to stomach. In those clothes, he certainly did look like a Death Fairy to Mal at least.

The crowd was already mostly silent, but the remaining murmurs died out as one of the guards stepped forward and began to read out the crimes for which the prisoners were to be executed. Mal easily ignored the guard's voice and focused on what the executioner was removing from inside his robes. A sword.

When Mal had been hopeful that her magic could be used to save Ben's life by sabotaging the execution, she had spent many hours researching the process of past executions. All of them were carried out by the same weapon, and Mal had planned to enchant it to make it useless to buy her time. However, Mal had quickly discovered that the sword was none other than King Arthur's Excalibur. King Arthur ruled the land to the north of Auradon and maintained an alliance with the nation. Since the sword was both the sharpest blade ever forged and was unable to be enchanted, this was a simple choice for executions. Whenever a beheading was to take place, Auradon would simply borrow the sword in a temporary exchange for Fairy Godmother's wand. An equal trade, but a nuisance for Mal. Excalibur was imbued with its own magic that prevented any manipulation of the blade or its power.

The guard stopped speaking and stepped back from the edge of the stage where he had been addressing the crowd. As if on cue, the other guards pushed Beast forward toward the stump in the middle of the stage and forced him to his knees. He bent forward, positioning his head on the stump in preparation for the executioner.

Mal glanced at Ben. He was staring straight ahead, his gaze not even close to allowing the image of Beast into his line of sight.

The executioner lifted Excalibur. Mal shut her eyes tightly and angled her face toward her lap where her hands were clenched tightly. There was the unmistakable sound of metal cutting through flesh and bone. And a thud as something tumbled into the basket.

People around her gasped or screamed. The sight must have been horrible, but Mal kept her eyes tightly closed. Tears were threatening to escape between her lashes and at the sides of her eyes. A horrible pit was suddenly in her stomach. She should have forgiven Beast despite all the horrible things he had done. He had had mere hours left when she had told him to his face that she would be happy when he died. She should have been the bigger person and forgiven him. Now, it was simply too late.

Another thud and gasps, and some crying this time, notified Mal that Belle had just met the same fate at the blade as her husband.

After a few moments, Mal forced herself to look up toward the stage. Luckily, Beast's and Belle's bodies had already been removed from the stage. She forcibly kept her eyes locked on Ben rather than the pool of blood inching its way across the stage.

Then one of the guards pushed Ben toward the bloody stump, and Mal's knuckles turned white as she clenched her hands harder around each other. It was really happening, and there was nothing she could do to stop it any longer.

"WAIT!"

Mal's heart and stomach gave such powerful lurches at the sound of Evie's voice that she wasn't sure which organ would escape her body first. She whipped around in her seat as nearly everyone else in the amphitheater did the same.

Evie was sprinting down the center aisle of the amphitheater and only stopped when she had reached Mal. She clutched the stitch in her side and breathed deeply before nodding several times to Mal.

Hope lit again in Mal's chest, and she stood, moving to join Evie in the aisle.

"You found her?" Mal asked softly and swiftly.

"Yes," Evie panted. "Luckily, your banishing charm must have separated her from her scepter. She's powerless."

"But, how did you find her?"

"Duh. My magic mirror knew the way." Evie managed a pained smile as she was still out of breath. "She was all the way in the north of Camelot. Lots of mountains. No cell reception and -"

"What is the meaning of this?" It was Charming. He had vacated his perch in the front row and was now advancing on them.

Mal glanced back up the aisle Evie had run the length of and noticed Doug leading a handcuffed Maleficent toward them. Everyone else seemed to notice this at the same moment Mal did as several people screamed and murmuring broke out in the crowd like wildfire.

Mal looked back at Charming, who had stopped in his tracks and gone white. She simply smiled and nodded to Ben.

Ben, currently standing in the pool of his parents' blood, had his gaze locked on Maleficent. He seemed to be calculating the plan he and Mal had discussed and the fact that the chance to carry it out had just materialized in front of him.

"Ooh, this does look like a fun party," Maleficent chirped. Despite being captured and handcuffed and powerless, she seemed to still be in high spirits.

Mal found this highly annoying. "Do shut up, Mother." She turned abruptly from Maleficent, not even giving her attention-seeking mother the chance to throw a pout or sneer at her. "Ben. If you please."

Ben straightened as if electrocuted by Mal's voice. He shrugged the guard's hand off his arm. The guards seemed too shocked by Maleficent's sudden presence to be concerned with Ben. After all, by comparison, Maleficent was the bigger priority on any Most Wanted list.

"Citizens of Auradon," Ben said, raising both his head and his voice as he addressed the audience. "I make one last request of you before a complete lineage is wiped out here today. Let me correct my mistakes and put to rest any uncertainties regarding my conscience. Let me show you where my loyalties lie."

No one in the audience moved for a moment. Then, several people began nodding and whispering fervently to their neighbors.

"And how do you suggest to do that?" Charming asked sharply, having recovered from his initial shock. "Lock up your dear mother here? That'll show us." He laughed.

"No," Ben said. "Bring her up here and uncuff me."

Charming's gaze flitted up to the sparkling dome that kept Ben powerless and then smiled, seemingly amused. "Fine," he said. "Doug, take Maleficent up on stage. I am very interested in what our dishonored king has planned."

Mal, Evie, and Charming stood in the aisle and waited silently like the rest of the audience as Doug led Maleficent up the stairs to the stage and positioned her a few paces from Ben. Then Doug retreated back down the steps.

"Now the cuffs," Ben prompted Charming.

Charming nodded to the executioner. The executioner, the bottom of his periwinkle robes stained crimson now, stepped forward and began unlocking Ben's handcuffs.

Maleficent laughed and grinned at Ben. "Splendid plan, Ben. Such trickery. We'll rule Auradon by dawn tomorrow."

Several audience members stood, alarmed by Maleficent's words that she hadn't bothered to keep quiet. They guessed they had been tricked.

Ben gave her a sour smile as his hands came free. "Not quite the plan, I'm afraid." In one swift movement, Ben had spun and snatched Excalibur from the sheath on the executioner's belt. He sprang forward before anyone could act, and, with a single backhanded strike, the sharpest sword ever forged sent Maleficent's head tumbling into the second row of the audience. Maleficent's decapitated body crumpled.

People screamed, though the loudest of these were from the unfortunate observers who had found the evil fairy's severed head rolling across their laps and feet.

"Matricide!" Charming shouted.

"Justice," Ben countered.

"And redemption," Mal added. A sad smile touched her mouth. She couldn't help feeling sorrow for the woman who had raised her, but the plan had been Mal's idea. Killing Maleficent had been the only was Mal foresaw to save Ben. Of course, now the decision lay with the citizens and Council of Auradon to see it the same way she did - by killing Maleficent, Ben had chosen his people over his genetics. He would write his own destiny.

Yes, Mal prayed they would see it this way. If they didn't and went on with Ben's execution, then Mal had lost both her parents that day for absolutely no reason at all.


	17. Chapter 17

_Epilogue_

It was almost a year before things were the same in Auradon again. Granted, nothing could ever be exactly the same after the executions and the aftermath that had followed.

In response to Ben's show of loyalty to Auradon, the Council had elected to hold another trial for Ben. Charming's objections to a retrial were ignored. Rather, Charming was unanimously voted off the Council by its other members the following day. The Council claimed he had stepped out of line several times by abusing his power. His actions at the amphitheater had been the last straw. He had acted alone without conferring with the rest of the Council and put everyone in danger of a coup by uncuffing Ben when he could have easily released Maleficent. They counted themselves lucky that Ben had sided with Auradon over his mother or else Charming's stupidity and arrogance could have cost them all much more than one Council member's dismissal.

A week later, Ben's retrial was held in a much calmer and level-headed courtroom than the previous one. He was cleared of all charges, including the murders of the courtroom guards. These were written off as the product of temporary insanity caused by a magic-induced frenzy. With this in mind, the jury agreed that Ben should be allowed to reclaim the throne, but there were some conditions. He would be required to master his magic by practicing daily under the supervision of Fairy Godmother and Mal, since Mal understood their inherited magic best. Also, Ben would be required to see a therapist weekly. Ben happily embraced both of these conditions, knowing both were necessary for his citizens and himself to feel safe in his presence. He doubted he would stop with either the magic practice or the psychologist after the required year of each had expired. He never wanted to be controlled by his magic again, and violent recurring nightmares regarding his parents had started the first night after the executions. Yes, he welcomed both the magic lessons and the therapy gladly.

Likewise, Mal decided to start seeing a therapist. This was not required by anyone but herself. Her guilt over not forgiving Beast before his execution had grown exponentially with the addition of the guilt she felt for initiating her mother's death. In the months following the executions, it was common for Evie to wake up in the middle of the night to find Mal sobbing. Eventually, both Mal and Ben were prescribed antidepressants and sleep medication. In conjunction with their therapy sessions, they slowly saw improvement until they could finally smile at one another in the hallway at school and talk easily at the dinner table.

Yes, after Audrey had gladly moved out of the palace after Ben's retrial, claiming she couldn't handle the pressure of the job at this age anyway, Ben and Mal had started eating dinner together at the palace. They made a routine of this in an effort to pull the last scraps of their family together. At first, they often ate in silence. Sometimes, they inquired about the other's day. Neither seemed able to look at the other for a long time, and it was weeks of this before one of them said something that made the other laugh. At this point, Ben had reached across the table and squeezed Mal's hand. It looked like he wanted to lean across the table and kiss her. Instead, he had withdrawn his hand, and the meal had continued in awkward silence.

Luckily, by the time the anniversary of the executions was approaching, Mal's and Ben's behavior had settled back into easy jibes and laughter. This didn't mean they had fully recovered, but they were doing the best they had all year. The lingering romantic awkwardness had faded after a while. In fact, Mal had been dating Jay for a few weeks by this point. Ben had been on a few dates with Lonnie, but he told his therapist he was hesitant to let anyone close again. His magic was mostly controlled now, but high stress or emotions could still cause an outburst of green flames. He didn't want anyone too close emotionally or physically at the moment for fear of hurting someone else. The murders of the guards still haunted his dreams where he was always the villain. His therapist said these would get better once he started to forgive himself and encouraged his relationship with Lonnie.

Finally, on the day of the anniversary of the executions, Ben visited the graves of Beast and Belle in the early moments of dawn. He cried, laid down flowers, apologized, and said he forgave them. He didn't know that Mal would do the exact same thing in a few hours.

Then, Ben pulled himself together and marched himself to the courthouse in downtown Auradon City. An hour later, he had successfully changed his legal name from Benjamin to Benevolent, just to spite Maleficent since she hated the name she had given him because it was 'sweet' and totally unfitting for a child of hers. Of course, this was just another way he sought to prove he wanted nothing to do with Maleficent's lineage. He would live up to his name and be the good king Auradon deserved.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N from original upload on fanfiction.net (7/8/2017): I had a lot of fun writing this story for you guys! I know this story has gone through periods of no updates for months, but it is finally completed. Thank you so much for sticking with it and continuing to read. My stories would not be possible without you guys as supportive readers and reviewers. But as I said, this story is now complete and will not receive any new updates. If you wish to know when I post new stuff, please give me an author follow and be sure to check out my other stories. For now, keep reading and keep loving life.
> 
> Foarrin


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